“The Half Life of Guilt adroitly braids paired narratives: a risk-filled present journey down the coast of Mexico and the fraught past of a family in northern California. [T]he novel somehow manages to be both action-packed and contemplative. Lynn Stegner gives us scientists and vintners and idealists and cynics: troubled creatures all. And she does so in prose as vivid as her scenery; the dead remain wholly alive.”

—Nicholas Delbanco, author of Why Writing Matters

“As Stegner explores both personal responsibility and our responsibility to care for the natural world, she illuminates the ways we love, fail to love, and repair our failures. Her unique sensibility makes for a fascinating read.”

—Andrea Barrett, author of Natural History and Ship Fever

“In this beautiful and layered novel Lynn Stegner takes us on a gritty road trip between two of the most vivid gardens in American literature. They are radical opposites, the tender vines of Napa and the salty recesses of the gray whale rookery at Baja, united by one woman’s fierce moral compass. Clair’s journey is a passionate tour of self-discovery and family history written so closely and with such astonishing sincerity that the entire novel becomes a kind of surprising tenderness. Clair wakes to the vast primordial world; she sees every feature and knows the heartfelt calculations of each. Lynn Stegner has the writer’s gift of creating a dear victory from the uneasiness of pristine places. This is a rich, rich book.”

—Ron Carlson, author of Return to Oakpine

 “The Half-Life of Guilt is a powerful tale of family loyalty, romantic love, and the long reach of a single, shocking childhood tragedy. . . . This sobering and insightful story is beautifully told.”

—Elizabeth Crook, author of The Madstone and The Which Way Tree

“Lynn Stegner is a beautiful writer. This fiercely wrought family saga will take your breath away with its sharpness and depth.” 

—Rick Bass, author of With Every Great Breath