About the Author

JoAnne Tompkins was inspired to become a writer by the human resiliency she observed in her first career as a mediator and judicial officer. She lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Reviews

Praise for What Comes After:

"What Comes After is a tender, wise debut, both grave and hopeful. In telling the story of the violent act that rocks a small community-and what emerges from the ashes-JoAnne Tompkins explores responsibility and forgiveness, connection and loss, the families we're born into and the ones we create. What Comes After asks whether we are inevitably shaped by the wounds we inherit-and the ones we give ourselves-or whether transformation, and redemption, are possible."-Chloe Benjamin, New York Times- bestselling author of The Immortalists

"Though What Comes After begins with the quick jaggedness of sorrow, it soon becomes an intricate journey across the soft, tender landscape of solace. It offers faith without dogma, love without melodrama, and healing that leaves well-earned scars. I found it a beautifully satisfying portrait of people who are terribly wrong about themselves, who discover astonishing relief when they accept their heartbreaking truths."-Cara Wall, author of The Dearly Beloved

"A moving, life-affirming page-turner. JoAnne Tompkins has a deep appreciation for the power of human connection and the magic that can happen when people reach across biological relationships to create the makeshift family or community that they need. This novel is a reminder that family goes beyond blood, held in love, and we are not alone." -Whitney Otto, New York Times-bestselling author of How To Make an American Quilt

"This is a book for the ages. A powerful, compassionate page-turner, What Comes After dives deep into the best and worst of humanity and comes out singing. This is a story of families failed and made, of lives lost and found and taken, and of anger and forgiveness-elusive, precious, and overwhelming. Joanne Tompkins is a clear-eyed reader of souls, and she gives them to us in all their complicated and terrible beauty."-Erica Bauermeister, New York Times-bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club Pick The Scent Keeper