Joan Nockels Wilson

Joan Wilson JD ’96 pens this novel set in Rome, Chicago, and Anchorage, and spanning 30 years from the story’s crime to its confrontation. The Book of Timothy: The Devil, My Brother, and Me recounts, in lyric movements, a sister’s journey–partly through trickery, but eventually through truth–to gain a long-absent admission from the priest who abused her brother. While on that journey, Nockels Wilson, a former prosecutor, confronts not only the abusive priest, but also her personal quest for vengeance. She also seeks an understanding of how the First Book of Timothy, the work of St. Paul, contributed to the silencing of women in her once-loved Catholic Church. This Book of Timothy promises to take the reader on a quest for justice and down a path of unexpected coincidences. It ends where it first began: with a great love for a brother and the belief in the power of memory.

Boreal Books, 2021. 320 pages.