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Title details for Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain - Available

Necessary Lies

A Novel

#1 in series

by Diane Chamberlain
Alison Elliott
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
3 of 3 copies available

Bestselling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a breakout book about a small southern town fifty years ago, and the darkest—and most hopeful—places in the human heart
After losing her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm. As she struggles with her grandmother's aging, her sister's mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.
When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County's newest social worker, she doesn't realize just how much her help is needed. She quickly becomes emotionally invested in her clients' lives, causing tension with her boss and her new husband. But as Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm—secrets much darker than she would have guessed. Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing the battle against everything she believes is wrong.
Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, Necessary Lies tells the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy. Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it's wrong?

  • Creators

  • Series

    Necessary Lies

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 3, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427232922
      • File size: 312841 KB
      • Duration: 10:51:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 8, 2013
      In this heart-wrenching historical fiction, prolific author Chamberlain focuses on a time in North Carolina’s history that most people would rather forget. It’s 1960, and Jane is a 21-year-old newlywed who’s just accepted a job as a social worker, though her husband, Robert, would rather she stay home like the other country club wives. Her clients—poor tobacco farmers in Grace County, like the Hart family—live in the harsh reality of the rural South, with too many mouths to feed and not much to feed them. Jane is eager to help, until she discovers that part of her job is deciding whether young girls like the vivacious Ivy Hart should be sterilized, in order to keep them from having babies that depend on the state. A captivating look at the little-discussed eugenics program that was responsible for sterilizing more than 7,000 American citizens—some without their knowledge—this engrossing novel digs deep into the moral complexity of a dark period in history and brings it to life. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Teenager Ivy Hart has a lot to handle. After losing her parents, she has no choice but to take care of her stubborn grandmother, her "slow" older sister, and her nephew on a small tobacco farm in Grace County, North Carolina. Meanwhile, social worker Jane Forrester is trying to help the people being affected by the state's controversial Eugenics Sterilization Program, which seeks to sterilize various people, including the "mentally defective." Narrator Alison Elliot uses a warm voice and Southern accent to vividly capture the story's setting and to evoke the emotions of Ivy and Jane. Elliot connects with the characters and the injustices they face, enlisting the listener's empathy to the end. D.Z. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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