“The Sorrows of Gathering is twisty and compelling. Part courtroom thriller, part historical epic, it gathers you in from the beginning and rushes you along, with its complex characters, strong writing, and the surprises that continue to the very end. Highly recommended.”
— SCOTT TUROW, author of Presumed Innocent and Presumed Guilty
The year is 1983. A renowned criminal defense attorney is reunited with her childhood sweetheart when he is arrested and accused of sexually assaulting and murdering his young intern.
Set against the backdrop of the Reagan-Era, the novel explores the twenty-two-month window when Massachusetts reinstated the death penalty and the nation began to face the specter of the AIDS crisis. As the case unfolds, the novel transforms into a lens for a sweeping saga that shows how the present is composed of the layered remains of past bodies and stories.
Combining the sensibilities of literary fiction and the high stakes of a courtroom drama, the novel acts as a profound excavation of historical and emotional memory and plumbs the thematic depths of To Kill a Mockingbird, Snow Falling on Cedars, and Anatomy of a Fall.
“Dorwart’s classic prose yields a devastating portrait of justice as a precarious ideal that can be corrupted by fear, political opportunism, and the seductive comfort of blame.”
— BOOKLIFE REVIEW · Read the full review
Coming January 2027
The Sorrows of Gathering
A courtroom thriller and a historical epic. In 1983 Massachusetts, an architect stands accused of murder, and the only person who can save him is the woman he loved first.
A novel by D. A. Dorwart | Hardcover, paperback and eBook
Inside the novel
What readers will find
A trial with a life at stake
The District Attorney seeks the newly reinstated death penalty against architect Nolan Gathering.
A defender with history
Rebecca Quinn Martin, a renowned defense attorney and Nolan’s childhood sweetheart, takes the case.
America in 1983
Set in the college town of Marshford at the start of the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan years.
A story across generations
Love and valor, betrayal and redemption, with surprises that continue to the very end.
Praise
What readers are saying
Dark, haunting, and profoundly human, a sweeping literary mystery that explores love, prejudice, and the devastating cost of silence. Rich with moral complexity, unforgettable characters, and aching emotional depth, this novel blends courtroom suspense with a deeply compassionate meditation on loss, redemption, and the courage it takes to face a world determined to judge before it understands.
Danielle Sartorelli
author of Life in Instalments
The Sorrows of Gathering is a tense, riveting courtroom drama. Set in the early 1980s, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, D. A. Dorwart examines the conservative views on race and homosexuality in supposedly liberal Massachusetts. Elegantly written, the characters are fully-developed and draw us into their complex lives from the beginning. Courtroom drama at its best.
Larry Barthurst
author of The Philosopher’s Stone
The story feels like a cosmos unto itself, like W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn in which ‘the present is composed of the layered remains of countless past bodies and stories. This book is an odyssey. The range is immense, covering in lush and effortless prose, its many subjects and themes with acute insight.
Jack Driscoll
Pushcart and PEN/Nelson winner for Waiting to Be Heard
Its richness reminds me of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.
Mark Spencer
Faulkner Award for Love and Reruns in Adams County
Get your copy
Where to buy
Releases January 19, 2027. Order now from Amazon or Bookshop.org; more stores coming soon.
Hardcover, paperback, Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Hardcover, paperback, Nook
Support independent bookstores
Author's shop
Signed copies
