The Burden of Proof

560 pages

English language

Published Jan. 8, 1991 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

OCLC Number:
625

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Turow's acclaimed second novel, which topped international bestseller lists, is now available in trade paperback. Sandy Stern, the brilliant defense attorney from Presumed Innocent, faces an event so emotionally shattering that no part of his life is left untouched. It reveals a family caught in a maelstrom of hidden crimes, shocking secrets, and warring passions.

25 editions

Vintage Turow

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I was sure I'd read this long ago but after finishing this reread, I still don't remember having read much beyond the beginning the first time. Maybe I didn't. But while there's an ongoing mystery like in his previous and first book, Presumed Innocent, this is a slow and contemplative book, pretty much an ongoing mid-life crisis, so it's probably better digested by readers who middle-aged and beyond (you never see reading-age guidelines like that), and if I read this near its publication date thirty-five years ago when I was in my twenties (it was his second novel) I might have found it a snooze.

But now I appreciate the writing (I've pretty much liked everything Turow has written) and the character portrait, especially considering the protagonist, a character from the first book, is a foreign-born Latin-American Jew. I admire how Turow stretches himself as a writer (a lot of …