"Half my life ago, I killed a girl". So begins Darin Strauss' Half a Life, the true story of how one outing in his father's car resulted in the death of a classmate and the beginning of different, darker life for the author. The reader follows Strauss as he blurs through his startling past - collision, funeral, the queasy drama of a high-stakes court case. What starts as a personal tale of a tragic event opens into the story of how one lives with a very hard fact: that we can try our human best in the crucial moment, but it might never be good enough. Half a Life is a nakedly honest and painful, yet ultimately hopeful, examination of guilt, responsibility and living with past actions written in Strauss' beautiful yet stark and sharp prose.