"Atticus" is the story of a father's fierce love for his son, a love so steadfast and powerful that it bends the impersonal forces of destiny to its own will. As Atticus uncovers the story of his son's death, fitting together the pieces of the mosaic that was Scott's life in Mexico— and encountering a group of disturbing characters along the way— he suffers a father's grief and rage, but is driven forward in his quest to understand by the even more powerful force of a father's love.

Written in the sensuous prose style of Ron Hansen's earlier works of fiction, "Atticus" is a suspenseful murder mystery, as vivid and precise in its imagery as the highly acclaimed "Mariette in Ecstasy." Illuminating those often obscure chambers of the human heart, "Atticus" is finally a novel about deeply rooted, almost unfathomable love, a mystery that Ron Hansen's fiction explores with a passion and intensity no reader will be able to resist.