SOLVED. Adult Contemporary Fiction book with a plot similar to Sophie's Choice, focusing on the aftermath from the surviving sibling's perspective. [s]

[Ram]

I did not complete reading this book, but if I remember correctly, I remember finding it in Sam's Club between 2016 and 2019 (inclusive of both years, if it happened to have been before that, it was no year before 2012), I read this book in English, I was in college at the time, but there's every chance it could have been before that (it is a pretty recent book though, as far as I know, so definitely not before 2012). If it was 2012-2016, I was in high school. I didn't read too far into the book, a few chapters at most, and the book was pretty thick from what I remember. The writing was similar to Jodi Piccoult's books, but from what I've checked, she did not write a book like this.

The book starts with a flashback that opens the story: a mother with two children and a happy family life (good marriage, 2 kids she loves and who love her, etc.) gets a knock at the door. When she opens the door, there's this random guy at the door, I don't remember what the conversation or exact words used were, but the end result is that he ends up telling her to pick one child or the other (I'm not sure if she did end up making a choice or not, but if I remember correctly, she said her her older daughter's name (which might have been Anna something, but I'm not sure about that) rather than her younger son (whose name, I'm pretty sure, was Charlie) to call them back to her (I think), but the guy takes that as her choice and ends up shooting Charlie, the younger son.

I don't remember what perspective the book was written in from; it was either third-person, and/or at least partially first person from the daughter's perspective. What I read from the book was how the older daughter always felt like she was ignored/second-best in comparison to Charlie, who was the baby of the family (he might have been a miracle child since he survived being born premature, but I'm not sure about that) and I think he was a very affectionate/sweet kid, she was surprised that her mother picked her, she always felt super guilty that she was the one who was "picked" to survive instead of him (I seem to remember her going into how she thinks her mother just happened to say her name first and didn't actually mean to pick her, but I'm not sure), and she also wondered whether her mother felt she made a mistake in picking her (and maybe that drove her into perfectionist tendencies, but I'm not sure about this detail either). The mother was pretty wrecked as well, but how, I'm not so sure. It was basically an exploration on how a freak tragedy like this affects a family, as well as the sibling and parent-child relationship.

If anyone can help me find this book, that would be greatly appreciated, I would love to finally finish this book.

[Mai]

The Perfect Family by Samantha King maybe?

Reading some of the reviews they sound similar to your description even though the boy's name is not Charlie and he isn't the baby of the family because the two children are twins. I'm not sure which one dies either but I thought I'd mention it just in case!

It also seems to be called The Choice (?!)

[Ram]

Mai wrote: "The Perfect Family by Samantha King maybe?

Reading some of the reviews they sound similar to your description even though the boy's name is not Charlie and he isn..."

YES, it was The Choice! Thank you so much!