cover image The Sinner's Guide to Confession

The Sinner's Guide to Confession

Phyllis Schieber, . . Berkley, $14 (374pp) ISBN 978-0-425-22153-2

As they navigate midlife in Manhattan, 50-somethings Kaye, Barbara and Ellen are not shrinking violets: Kaye, her children grown, is having an affair; Barbara, widowed with an empty nest, writes erotic novels under a pen name; and Ellen, whose husband has left their childless marriage, must watch him start a new family with a much younger woman—while bearing a secret. The three rely on each other, but Kaye and Barbara have kept the affair and erotica secret, and Ellen's own secret, long held, is only now about to surface: she gave birth at 16 and was forced by her family to give her daughter up for adoption. As Barbara and Kaye accompany Ellen to her father's funeral, none can guess the cascade of revelations that will rock all of their lives. Schieber (Willing Spirits ) never falls back on easy answers or convenient outcomes; with patience and sensitivity, she illuminates the three women's choices and their friendship. (July)