The Body in Question

Written by Jill Ciment

Jurors' affair complicates a murder trial, revealing deep personal and moral dilemmas.

3.6/5 Goodreads · 12,931 ratings

192 pages

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Bookroo's summary

A photographer and an anatomy professor, jurors in a toddler's murder trial, engage in a secret affair. As they discover they're on opposing sides, their relationship faces scrutiny. With an anonymous letter threatening exposure, the photographer's last fling spirals into a moral quandary. Will their secret unravel in the public eye?

From the publisher

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A 52 year-old photographer and a 41 year-old anatomy professor are jurors sequestered during a sensational three-week trial: a toddler murdered by one of his twin sisters. At the court appointed cut-rate motel off the interstate, they fall into an intense, furtive affair, but it is only during deliberations that the lovers learn they are on opposing sides of the case. Suddenly they look at one another through an altogether different lens. After the trial, the photographer returns to her much older husband amidst an ongoing media frenzy over the case. But the judge has received an anonymous letter about the affair, and she is preparing to release the jurors names. From that point on, the photographer’s “one last dalliance before she is too old” takes on profoundly personal and moral consequences, as The Body in Question moves to its affecting, powerful, and surprising conclusion.

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