The Lie

Description

Joan, once a singing star of the 1940s and 1950s, now ekes out a lonely, impoverished existence - until a chance encounter promises a come-back concert and an album. Her sister Kathleen is a successful medical researcher who has been offered the directorship of a prestige institute in Los Angeles in her retirement but is facing divorce after her husband's affair. In their old age, Joan and Kathleen draw closer together. Until a figure from Joan's past threatens everything they've built. As the sisters excavate the lies that bound them together, a more profound truth threatens to drive them apart. Set in three time frames, the novel unravels the sisters' lives as choices past and present collide.

Mary Chamberlain is a novelist and historian. Her debut novel, The Dressmaker of Dachau, was published in 18 countries. She is the author of non-fiction books on women's history and Caribbean history, including Fenwomen, the first book published by Virago Press. She lives in London with her husband, the political theorist Stein Ringen.

Praise for The Hidden: 'A powerful and raw, elegantly written, character piece dealing with inhumanity and endurance, firmly grounded in real events.' Herald 'Recent novels such as The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society have taken the occupation as their subject, but none so potently as Mary Chamberlain's The Hidden.' Sunday Times 'A heart-breaking yet hope-filled tale.' Woman's Own magazine