by Amanda Eyre Ward
Random House
256 pages

Nadine Morgan has been running her whole life. Ever since her mother died of cancer when Nadine was six, she has been afraid of being stuck in one place, afraid of getting close to anyone. She left Cape Cod and her father right after she graduated high school and never looked back.

Traveling the world as a journalist, Nadine has always sought danger, her lack of fear getting her the story before anyone else. But danger caught up with her. On her last assignment in Mexico City, she was beaten within an inch of her life by drug dealers. Now, stuck in her father’s home with his overbearing wife, she has plenty of time to reflect.

Ten years before she went to Mexico City, Nadine investigated a story in South Africa. A young white teacher named Jason Irving had just been murdered in Johannesburg—another casualty of apartheid. Nadine quickly picked up on the story and the people involved, befriending the sister of one of the killers. She also met Marcus, a wild photographer, and fell in love. But true to her nature, she couldn’t stay in one place for long.

Now, a decade after apartheid has ended, Jason Irving’s parents are going to South Africa to face his killers, who are up for a pardon as part of the government’s campaign to review every politically motivated crime that took place during apartheid. Irving’s father says he forgives his son’s killers. His mother does not. Sensing a chance at a hot story, Nadine once again abandons the people who are caring for her in Cape Cod, including a doctor with whom she has developed a relationship, and hops on the next plane to Johannnesburg.

Released by Random House in June, “Forgive Me” is the third novel from New York native Amanda Eyre Ward, following “Sleep Toward Heaven” and “How To Be Lost.” The author’s third effort would be a great story if it were about a woman trying to reclaim her past, reconnect with old friends and right old wrongs.

But it’s not.

Nadine is not in the least a likeable or sympathetic character. She’s rude and unpleasant, having all the characteristics of someone hell-bent on self-destruction—times two. She drinks, smokes, has sex with strangers and behaves nastily toward anyone who can’t advance her career.

Even in her flashbacks, Nadine does not reveal any redeeming qualities. She screws someone over for an interview, leaves a dying lover to chase a story and ditches a friend who just flew across the Atlantic to see her. It’s possible we are expected to forgive her anything because she’s gorgeous. Men just fall at her feet, and maybe readers are supposed to do the same. If Nadine has a well-meaning, pleasant side, Ward never shows it to us, not even when she’s supposedly in love with Marcus.

Interwoven in the book are journal entries from a little boy who wants to leave home and become a star but has unsuspectingly made friends with a pedophile. Adding sexual abuse of children to numerous references to the horrors inflicted in South Africa is completely unnecessary and distracts from what little interesting bits the book includes.

The conclusion, which Nadine brings about through a typically deceitful ploy, does not redeem the character. Once again, she seems to gain advantages not because she deserves them, but because she expects them. We don’t see Nadine becoming a better person, just making different decisions. She is not worthy of anything she receives because she doesn’t earn it. Everything about her, like this book and Nadine’s play for redemption, rings false.