Secrecy: A Novel - Softcover

Plain, Belva

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440225116 ISBN 13: 9780440225119

Publisher: Dell, 1998

Synopsis

First came the sin.  Then the lies.

He was handsome, charming, irresistable, and an eighteen-year-old lady-killer, her uncle Cliff's stepson, Ted.  But in one terrible night he would shatter the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Dawes and nearly destroy her family.  Years afterward, Charlotte would remember that night with fear and loathing, with pain that could be banished only by her work as a gifted architect, building a new world for others as she conceals her own.

For Charlotte's family, prime employers in New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte was the beginning of the end.  Her father is left shattered by his daughter's pain.  Her troubled mother is unable to cope.  And her distinguished family has fallen from grace, plunged into debt.  The only rock that sustains them in their darkest hours is a woman whose own guilty secret has given her the power to ruin--or resurrect--the family to whom she owes her life.

Belva Plain's searing novel cuts to the heart of a family ravaged by secrecy.  But it is ultimately a story of redemption, the kind that grows when one person dares to tell the truth.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"Belva Plain writes with authority and integrity."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Belva Plain is in a class by herself."
--The New York Times

"A superb storyteller... A talent worth remembering... Mrs. Plain's novels are good stories well told."
--The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)

About the Author:

Belva Plain captured readers' hearts with her first novel, Evergreen, which Delacorte published more than 30 years ago. It topped the New York Times best-seller list for 41 weeks and aired as an NBC-TV miniseries. In total, more than 20 of her books have been New York Times best sellers.

Before becoming a novelist,  Belva Plain wrote short stories for many major magazines, but taking care of a husband and three children did not give her the time to concentrate on the novel she had always wanted to write. When she looked back and said she didn't have the time, she felt as though she had been making excuses. In retrospect, she said, "I didn't make the time." But, she reminded us, during the era that she was raising her family, women were supposed to concentrate only on their children. Today 30 million copies of her books are in print.

A Barnard College graduate who majored in history,  Belva Plain enjoyed a wonderful marriage of more than 40 years to Irving Plain, an ophthalmologist. Widowed for more than 25 years, Ms. Plain continued to reside in New Jersey, where she and her husband had raised their family and which was still home to her nearby children and grandchildren until her death in October 2010.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dell
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0440225116
• ISBN 13: 9780440225119
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 432