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Henry Shaw, a high-school senior, is as comfortable with his family as any seventeen-year-old can be. His father, Kevin, teaches history with a decidedly socialist tinge at the Chicago private school Henry and his sister attend. His mother, Beth, who plays the piano in a group specializing in antique music, is a loving, attentive wife and parent. Henry even accepts the offbeat behavior of his thirteen-year-old sister, Elvira, who is obsessed with Civil War reenactments and insists on dressing in handmade Union uniforms at all times.

When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that everything is not quite as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, a name which Henry innocently established for her, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with one Richard Polloco, a violin maker with a very appealing way with words and a romantic spirit, that in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks.

Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the "old story" of adultery his mother deemed her affair to be. With her inimitable grace and compassion, Jane Hamilton has created in Disobedience a novel of gentle humor and rich insights into the nature of love and the deep, mysterious bonds that hold families together.

About the Author: Jane Hamilton is the author of The Book of Ruth, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction, and A Map of the World, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Both The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World have been selections of Oprah's Book Club. Her most recent work, The Short History of a Prince, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998. She lives in Rochester, Wisconsin.

Written by Jane Hamilton - Performed by Robert Sean Leonard - Abridged Fiction - 5 COMPACT DISCS - 6 hours

Publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell (October 2000)