Be prepared to have your socks knocked off by the moral quandary Amy Bourret presents in her debut novel MOTHERS & OTHER LIARS. Picture this, you are a nineteen-year-old young woman driving across country, hunting a new life. You take a break at a rest stop in Oklahoma and find an infant girl discarded in the trash. What would you do? You’d probably do the first thing Ruby Leander does, you’d pick that baby up. You would hold her against your heart. But maybe you wouldn’t do what Ruby does next. Maybe you wouldn’t put the baby in your car and drive away from there, drive out of the state without a word to anyone about the child or without making an effort to find out to whom she belongs. Maybe you wouldn’t make a home for this child, a life with her. Maybe you wouldn’t allow this little girl to believe for nine years that you are her natural mother. But Ruby Leander does. And it’s fine, really. Clearly Ruby is a better choice as a parent than the ones who threw their baby away. Lark Leander couldn’t be better cared for. But then the day comes when Ruby is confronted with irrefutable proof that Lark was not cruelly abandoned by her birth parents as she had believed, that, in fact, Lark’s parents are looking for her. They have clung to the hope of finding their daughter. Now this is heartbreaking. Ruby loves her daughter with every cell, every atom of her being; Lark knows no other mother; they share a soul-deep bond, yet Lark’s real parents have spent long nightmarish years searching and grieving Lark’s loss.
What is the right thing to do? To whom does Lark belong and who should decide? No matter which direction she turns, Ruby can see no way out that will not cause irretrievable harm to someone.
This book is so smartly plotted. The dilemma it poses is riveting, ideal for book clubs, for any reader who is compelled by the larger questions in life. Even after you have turned the last page, when you know the outcome for Ruby and Lark, you’ll find yourself still wondering: What would I do? How far would I go to save a child?
Visit Amy's Website: http://amybourret.com/
Comments
Terrific review.