Joan, once a singing star of the 1940s and 1950s, now ekes out a lonely, impoverished existence – until a chance encounter promises a comeback concert and an album.
Her sister Kathleen is a successful medical researcher who has been offered the directorship of a prestigious institute in Los Angeles as she contemplates the recent break-up with the love of her life.
Over the years, 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 bind them, a more profound truth threatens to drive them apart.
The Lie by Mary Chamberlain is published on 20 July, 2023.
Mary has written about the theme that lies behind her novel in The stigma of illegitimacy: forced adoption.
She was the first author published by the pioneering women’s press, Virago, as she recalls in Memories of Virago.
Since then she has had a number of novels published. Her most recent is The Forgotten (2021); read Sarah Day’s review of this book. Her previous novel, The Hidden, came out in 2019 and Duncan Barrett reviewed it for Historia.
You may also enjoy her feature The Partisan, socialist cafe and creative centre.
