Reasons for Waking

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PHILIP RUTLEDGE leads a simple, uncomplicated existence: He teaches English at a small-town university in Virginia, renovates his century-old house with help from his only friend, and tends to his epileptic Labrador retriever. The shooting death of his ten-year-old brother, TEDDY, a decade earlier, and his parents' insistence to move on as if Teddy had never existed, forced Philip to protect himself from grief in the only way he knew-by severing his physical and emotional ties with his family and most other people.When EMILY WARNER, the daughter of the shooter, tracks Philip down to help her uncover why her father-an otherwise peaceful man-committed this act of random violence, Philip is yanked back toward his past. As he and Emily unearth the events that led to the shooting, Philip discovers that nothing about the attack-or his family-is as it appears, and the devastating secrets that emerge threaten what little peace Phillip has found since the shooting.