I could not really comprehend the grief of the woman whose son was in prison, although I sat down with her to talk despite the fact that it was just minutes before I would go up to speak to a huge crowd. I could not imagine the grief of the mother visiting her daughter’s grave. “At least,” she told the boy’s mother, “you can still touch him.” The mother of the lost girl then said the most heart-wrenching thing. The boy’s mother was terrified: What would happen? Would the woman shout at her, quite justifiably? Would she hit her? Instead, the two, who’d once been good friends, fell sobbing into each other’s arms. She went on to tell me that one day, when she was in their hometown cemetery, bringing roses to the girl’s grave, the girl’s mother appeared. But she did tell me-her son had murdered the only girl he’d ever loved while so strung out on drugs that he didn’t even remember the death. Oh, no, don’t tell me why-this must be very, very bad. She told me that she came to stay at this hotel every weekend in order to visit her son, who was in prison not far from here and would be in prison for at least twenty more years.

The woman in front of me dropped her book I picked it up and asked if she was attending the conference. Years before I ever wrote this story, I was standing in a coffee line at a big hotel in Chicago where I was speaking at a writers’ conference. But, upon reflection, the response isn’t so simple if you consider the crushing weight of horror, guilt and shame that comes with the other option. But it comprised the heartbreak of the essential question: Is it worse to lose the one you love most in the world, or to have that beloved person do the worst possible thing?Īt first, the answer seems obvious: of course you would never want to lose your best beloved. That real-life version did not contain the myriad twists that would become such an important part of my imagined story. But I knew there was a compelling story in there-because I’d been captivated long ago by a real-life version of it.

The Good Son was a book I had to fight for the right to write.įellow novelists said the premise might not be appealing even my agent doubted that I could ever make the characters sympathetic. Let’s hear, from Jacquelyn herself, about the inspiration behind the book! Suspense, mystery, and the complexities in life are explored in #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Good Son. A girl is murdered and time is served but is it enough? Did he even commit the crime? How can he move on? How can his mother? This rich and complex novel is a compelling look into what happens when everything you’ve ever known is turned inside out.

The good son you jeong jeong summary