Tova Mirvis asks just how far a family would go to protect their own in WE WOULD NEVER, a riveting literary page-turner. When a contentious divorce, an estranged adult son and a debilitating illness all come for the Marcuses, they must decide who among them is strong enough to say “Enough.”

Although the warning signs have been there for months, Hailey Gelman is shocked when her husband, Jonah, asks her for a divorce. He’s been miserable for some time, and there’s one irreconcilable issue in their marriage that he only sees getting worse: her well-meaning but intrusive family, namely her mother, Sherry. Hailey knows that Sherry can be a bit overbearing. But she’s also aware that her mother’s more suffocating tendencies come not from a desire to control, but from a deep well of love for her, as well as her brothers, Nate and Adam. Along with her daughter, Maya, Hailey flees the home she shares with Jonah in New York to her parents’ place in Palm Beach, where she can regroup, recover and pretend (even for a moment) that her life isn’t imploding.

"Propulsive in its tone, ambitious in its probing of the human psyche, and full of poignant questions about morality and love, WE WOULD NEVER is a must-read."

But with Palm Beach comes a return to the Marcus family, whose motto is that they would “do anything for each other.” Despite the saccharine sweetness of the saying, Sherry’s fanatic clinging to it has not smoothed over any family rifts, but rather intensified them, with deep-seated hurts and betrayals being ignored and left to fester rather than be addressed. The most obvious evidence of this is Adam, who has not spoken to the family since Hailey’s wedding, when a tragedy splintered the already tenuous bond that he shared with them, especially his mother.

Not quite as obvious, but no less painful, is the tension between Nate and their father, Solomon. Although the two work together at the family dermatology practice, Solomon is either unwilling or unable to shed his long-standing opinion of Nate as a screw-up, who is more keen on practical jokes and poking bears than being reliable or dependable. All of this would be enough to sink even a functional family, but Sherry is confident that the Marcuses can get through anything, especially now that her daughter is home. Tired of being an empty-nester, she can find some real purpose again.

But then the unthinkable happens. Hailey receives a call from the police informing her that her estranged husband, soon-to-be ex, and star of their growing-ever-more-contentious divorce has been shot and killed in the doorway to his home. If you’ve read just one thriller or watched an episode of any police procedural, you know as well as Hailey does that she’s the obvious suspect. Although she has an airtight alibi, the divorce proceedings, Jonah’s frequent mutterings about her family’s control over her, and her mother’s pushiness combine to paint a portrait of her that even she doesn’t recognize. Eventually, Hailey must wonder if she somehow caused Jonah’s death. After all, she can’t deny ever wishing for it.

It’s no spoiler to say that Hailey is not responsible for what happened, but that statement is not so simple, either. Alternating between the months leading up to Jonah’s murder, the tragic days that follow, and five months later --- when Hailey finally has the chance to analyze it all --- Tova Mirvis pens a riveting domestic drama about the most complicated, painful and love-filled thing of all: family. Although Hailey is our ostensible protagonist, Mirvis draws the most compelling portrait of Sherry.

Through Sherry’s eyes, we see her perspective of herself: a loving mother who even now remains stunned that she, a former lonely only child, was able to manifest a family so rich in flavor and love. We also see her fierce devotion to her children, particularly Hailey, and how she thinks only of their safety and happiness, often to her own detriment.

Through the eyes of her children, however, a slightly skewed reflection appears: Sherry is toxically positive, always exclaiming about how happy she and her family are, even when all evidence is to the contrary. Rather than actually addressing issues in her family --- the start of Adam’s estrangement, Nate’s inability to impress his father, even Hailey’s people-pleasing tendencies --- she prefers to gloss over them with a hug and a smile, empty gestures that she sees as icons. So laser-focused is she on her children that she often misses the signs of other issues, like Solomon’s health. Sherry is complicated and complex, multilayered in the way that only the most gifted, emotionally intelligent authors can achieve. Without demonizing or villainizing her, Mirvis highlights the darkest, most vicious corners of Sherry’s mind and asks readers, “Wouldn’t you feel the same?”

So how can a family beset by so many painful, ongoing tragedies cope? And what would they do to stop the drama and the pain? As Mirvis shows, it’s true that we can never really know another person, but it’s even more shocking how frequently we learn that we don’t even know ourselves. The gap between imagining something and doing it is infinitesimally small, and with just one decision, you can find yourself doing something you would never do. While not exactly a thriller --- the focus is less on identifying the killer and more on how each of the Marcus family members react to the murder --- the book has all the trademarks of one: edge-of-your seat suspense, hidden motives and alliances, and, of course, death.

Propulsive in its tone, ambitious in its probing of the human psyche, and full of poignant questions about morality and love, WE WOULD NEVER is a must-read.