Read this when
Fifth Business
Ever carried guilt since you were ten years old? Dunstan Ramsay kept the actual stone. "Forgive yourself for being a human creature."
Who it's for
Dunstan Ramsay tells his life as a long reckoning with one moment: at ten, he dodged a snowball with a stone in it, which hit the pregnant Mrs.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The first novel of Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy (1970) is narrated by Dunstan Ramsay, an ageing history teacher, as a letter to his school's headmaster. As boys, his lifelong friend and rival Boy Staunton throws a snowball at him that hits the pregnant Mary Dempster instead, bringing on premature labour; Ramsay says it hid a stone, which Boy always denies.
Where to find it
In print (Penguin; also in The Deptford Trilogy omnibus) and as an e-book; available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla). An audiobook exists. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: A suicide attempt and war injury.
Age: Ages 16+
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Crime and Punishment”
