THE SHOOTING: A Memoir

One fine day in April 1988, Powers, a 14-year-old Brooklyn honors student, came home from school with two pals. Showing off a bit—just fooling around, really—he took out one of his mom's handguns and accidentally shot and killed his best friend. Although his friend's family forgave him, Powers never forgave himself. A year of counseling offered little to a young man consumed with guilt; the compassionate silence of his family and friends only helped him suppress the pain. He channeled his energies into his academic work and, later, a successful career in journalism (Forbes , Newsweek , Vibe , Savoy , etc.). Only Powers's baby daughter's sudden crisis—life-threatening febrile seizures—brought him back to thinking about "the Shooting." The baby survived, but her fragility triggered an intense reaction in Powers; he suffered increasingly debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. Medication eventually helped, although his marriage didn't survive. He slid into alcohol, fantasized suicide. By the end of the book, Powers has made a very tentative, fragile peace with his past. There are no polemics, not about gun control or racism or other issues his story could raise. This is simply writing from the heart, and it's powerful. 12 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Jan.)

FYI: A story-length version of this book appeared in Esquire in December 2002.