Editing The Sweet Hereafter (novel) (section)

==Plot==
''The Sweet Hereafter'' is a multiple [[first-person narrative]] depicting life in a small town in Upstate New York in the wake of a school bus accident in which many local children are killed. Their grieving parents are approached by a slick city lawyer who wants them to sue for damages. At first the parents are reluctant to do so, but eventually they are persuaded by the lawyer that filing a [[class action]] lawsuit would ease their minds and also be the right thing to do.

As most of the children are dead, the case now depends on the testimony in court of the few surviving witnesses. In particular, the deposition of 14-year-old Nichole Burnell, who was sitting at the front of the bus and is now paralyzed from the waist down by the accident, is considered all-important. However, she unexpectedly accuses the driver Dolores Driscoll of speeding and thus causing the accident. When she does so, any hope by survivors and grieving parents of receiving money are thwarted. All the people involved know that Nichole is lying but cannot do anything about it. Only her father knows why, but he is unable to publicly reveal his daughter's motives.

The novel captures the atmosphere in a small town suddenly shaken by catastrophe. Only the reader knows that Mitchell Stephens, the lawyer, has just learned that he has effectively lost his own child&mdash;his estranged, drug-addicted daughter informs him that she has just tested [[HIV]]-positive.