Small Wrongs: How we really say sorry in love, life and law

(Paperback, Paperback)

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'A sincere and delicate inquiry that moves with grace between public and private pain.'
Helen Garner

'Brave and brilliant... this book will change your life.'
Ceridwen Dovey

Kate Rossmanith studied people for a living, and thought she understood human nature well. But in the wake of her daughters birth, the vulnerability and intensity of parenthood took her completely by surprise. Faced with a debilitating insomnia, she spent hours awake reflecting on her own upbringing and the unwelcome role remorse can play in even the most devoted parents lives.

Increasingly fascinated with the concept of remorse, she was drawn to the criminal courts, observing case after case. She talked to criminals, lawyers and judges alike, trying to answer the fundamental question: how can you know whether a person is ever truly sorry

But it soon became clear the project was creating seismic shifts in Kates own life. The more she learnt, the more she saw how her relationship with her father, who for many years was a distant and often angry man, was steeped in remorse. The more she learnt, the more she saw the faultlines in her marriage, widening under the strains of parenthood. And ever present was a family history sketched across war-torn Europe, with the seeds of heartache taking root in Australia.
'A moving investigation into the inner-workings of remorse and forgiveness, not just as a legal concept, but a tool to opening up our common humanity. Kate is a brilliant storyteller.'
Alice Pung
'Intimate, revealing and fascinating, Rossmanith explores one of the most troubling expectations of those caught up in the criminal justice system, the performance of remorse.Anna Krien

Reviews

'A sincere and delicate inquiry that moves with grace between public and private pain.' Helen Garner

'Small Wrongsis memoir-writing at its best' Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum

'I love this book. Rossmanith does everything I want a nonfiction writer to do. She asks an important question, thinks with clarity and urgency on the page, and transforms that thinking into a gripping, emotional, human story. Small Wrongs is dazzling.' - Claire Dederer, author of the New York Times bestseller Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses

In this moving and spellbinding meditation on the mysteries of remorse, Kate Rossmanith shuttles between courtroom dramas and personal reminiscences as she traces out the repercussions of the "calamitous mistakes and misfortunes" that haunt our everyday lives. This is the gift Rossmanith gives her readers: through her elegant prose and riveting story structure, she opens up an elusive subject for us to ponder, withholding obvious closure, and yet satisfying us that she has reached the heart of the matter. Rarely does a book enter a readers life so completely.

-- Professor Michael Jackson
A moving investigation into the inner-workings of remorse and forgiveness, not just as a legal concept, but a tool to opening up our common humanity. Kate is a brilliant storyteller. -- Alice Pung
Small Wrongsis memoir-writing at its best -- Fiona Capp * Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum *

Author Bio

Kate Rossmanith is an author and an essayist, her nonfiction appearing in The Monthly, The Australian, and Best Australian Essays. In 2013, her essay The Work of Judges was nominated for a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism, and in 2018 her short documentary Unnatural Deaths was published by The Guardian as part of a series exploring archives on film. She lives in Sydney and lectures at Macquarie University.