Mandatory Reporting

Jonah is in over his head. His study abroad year in Dublin isn’t going as planned—instead of working towards an engineering degree, unexpected circumstances lead him to a course in psychology. Rather than the predictable world of numbers, he finds himself in classes about the human mind, in therapy with an enigmatic doctor, and in a family mental health clinic working alongside a beautiful and troubled supervisor.

But Jonah doesn’t trust relationships, or identity: in childhood, his sister died in an accident that left his mother forever changed by a traumatic brain injury, leaving only a shell of the person he knew. How can he help others talk about trauma when he survives by deliberately ignoring his own?

When he and his clinic supervisor begin the process of reporting suspected child abuse to the authorities, he is drawn into the murky depths of family dynamics. In therapy, he tries to avoid revealing the paralyzing guilt he feels over his part in his sister’s death, and in his heart, he is pulled between two equally compelling women.

And then someone dies.

Jonah is caught in the complex and unfamiliar web of relationships at the core of the Irish experience. Has he miscalculated, and have his mistakes caused another tragic death? Did he reveal too much to his therapist? Did the mandatory reporting enrage a violent father? As the police begin to investigate, is Jonah now the prime suspect?

Jonah must decide: come forward and admit his part, or go back to his old life and let a possible murderer go free. Before he can confront anyone else, he must face a more difficult challenger: himself.