Motherhood is at the
crux of The Comfort of Lies, a novel
that braids the stories of three, very different women - women bonded
by secrets, lies and a child conceived out of wedlock, the byproduct of an
illicit affair between Tia, a young woman grappling to find her place in the
world, and Nathan, a happily married man and father of two boys.
When Tia tells Nathan
that she's pregnant, he suddenly vanishes from her life. Thus, Tia decides to
give her baby girl up for adoption to a woman named Caroline, a workaholic doctor/pathologist,
whose husband is pressuring her to start a family.
Fast forward five
years: Caroline, the girl's adoptive
mother, persists in working long hours, making excuses and skirting her responsibilities
for the child,which takes a toll on her marriage. Maybe she's just not cut out to be a wife and a mother,
after all?
In the meantime,
Nathan's wife, Juliette, believes she's put the knowledge of her husband's
affair behind her. But when a letter
arrives addressed to her husband from Tia, "the other woman," and she
discovers that Nathan has a child, a daughter, he's never told her about,
Juliette's seemingly re-created life and marriage is again shattered. She secretly goes
in search of both Tia and Caroline in order to learn more.
Issues of trust, vulnerability
and forgiveness emerge as these three women's lives intersect. Each is forced to
face the facts of her life and make hard decisions for the future. Is there any way this five year-old child might be loved by
all three women?
Randy Susan Meyers (The Murderer's Daughters) has written a
multi-faceted, thought-provoking novel about the complicated lives and
challenges contemporary women--and families--face. Chapters told from alternating viewpoints
allow readers to experience the psyches of the characters as their private motivations
and pain are examined until truth is ultimately exposed.
The
Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers
Atria
Books, $25.00, Hardcover, 9781451673012, 336 pp
Publication
Date: February 12, 2013
