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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Moderate violence — a murder; gang violence; confrontations
Language
Some
Moderate profanity
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild — some adult situations
Substance Use
Barely any
Mild — 1960s drug culture in the college flashbacks
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The gap between idealism and reality — the college friends' choices in the decades between; a judge confronting her own past
What this book is about
Judge Sonia Klonsky must sentence a gang member convicted of murder — and the victim turns out to be connected to people she knew in the 1960s, when she and her friends were idealistic radicals. The novel moves between the 1990s trial and the 1960s college years. The Laws of Our Fathers is Scott Turow's most ambitious novel — a multigenerational story of idealism, compromise, and law.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A murder trial connected to the judge's college past
1960s idealism vs. 1990s compromise
Multigenerational structure — past and present
Scott Turow — Kindle County universe
Reader Verification
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