“Dorwart’s classic prose yields a devastating portrait of justice as a precarious ideal that can be corrupted by fear, political opportunism, and the seductive comfort of blame.”
— BookLife Reviews · Read the full review
“The Sorrows of Gathering is twisty and compelling. Part courtroom thriller, part historical epic, it gathers you in from the beginning and rushes you along, with its complex characters, strong writing, and the surprises that continue to the very end. Highly recommended.”
— Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent and Presumed Guilty
In the picturesque college town of Marshford, Massachusetts, a young man named Mathew McKinnon is
missing and presumed dead. The year is 1983, three years into the Reagan Presidency and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
The architect Nolan Gathering, to whom the young man was apprenticed, is arrested and charged with murder. The District Attorney seeks the death penalty, which has been recently re-instated in the Commonwealth,
because the murder was allegedly committed during the sexual assault of the young man.
The accused enlists the aid of his childhood sweetheart, Rebecca Quinn Martin, a nationally renowned criminal defense attorney.
The Sorrows of Gathering evokes Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars. By weaving a complex and compelling story around a central character accused of murder, the novel addresses systemic prejudices that pervert public attitudes, infect our legal system, and devastate
personal lives.
The Sorrows of Gathering is more than a legal drama. Over multiple generations, the novel’s themes of love and valor, sexuality and sacrifice, betrayal and redemption, time and loss, growth and awakening make it a work of serious fiction. “Like any affecting story, The Sorrows of Gathering is both instructive and emotive, igniting empathy, a kind of moral integrity, and a potency strong enough to raise the spirit.”
Coming January 2027
The Sorrows of Gathering
A courtroom thriller and a historical epic. In 1983 Massachusetts, an architect stands accused of murder, and the only person who can save him is the woman he loved first.
A novel by D. A. Dorwart | Hardcover, paperback and eBook
Inside the novel
What readers will find
A trial with a life at stake
The District Attorney seeks the newly reinstated death penalty against architect Nolan Gathering.
A defender with history
Rebecca Quinn Martin, a renowned defense attorney and Nolan’s childhood sweetheart, takes the case.
America in 1983
Set in the college town of Marshford at the start of the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan years.
A story across generations
Love and valor, betrayal and redemption, with surprises that continue to the very end.
Praise
What readers are saying
Dark, haunting, and profoundly human, a sweeping literary mystery that explores love, prejudice, and the devastating cost of silence. Rich with moral complexity, unforgettable characters, and aching emotional depth, this novel blends courtroom suspense with a deeply compassionate meditation on loss, redemption, and the courage it takes to face a world determined to judge before it understands.
Danielle Sartorelli
author of Life in Instalments
The Sorrows of Gathering is a tense, riveting courtroom drama. Set in the early 1980s, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, D. A. Dorwart examines the conservative views on race and homosexuality in supposedly liberal Massachusetts. Elegantly written, the characters are fully-developed and draw us into their complex lives from the beginning. Courtroom drama at its best.
Larry Barthurst
author of The Philosopher’s Stone
The story feels like a cosmos unto itself, like W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn in which ‘the present is composed of the layered remains of countless past bodies and stories. This book is an odyssey. The range is immense, covering in lush and effortless prose, its many subjects and themes with acute insight.
Jack Driscoll
Pushcart and PEN/Nelson winner for Waiting to Be Heard
Its richness reminds me of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.
Mark Spencer
Faulkner Award for Love and Reruns in Adams County
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Where to buy
Available January 2027. Links coming soon.
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