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The Pilot's Wife

Review

The Pilot's Wife

At 3:24 AM on a cold December morning, Kathryn Lyons' life changed forever. Awakened by a knock on her door, she soon learns that a plane, piloted by her husband, has crashed off the coast of Ireland. Her husband, along with 103 other people, died in the accident. Kathryn barely has time to absorb the fact that she has lost her husband when the plane's cockpit voice recorder reveals that fact that he had apparently planned the accident. For the sake of her daughter, Mattie, Kathryn launches her own investigation with the help of a union grievance representative. The more she probes into her husband's life, the more she realizes that she really did not know the man she had been married to for 16 years. Ultimately, Kathryn learns that he had another family in another country, and a whole life separate from the life he shared with her and her daughter. Anita Shreve raises interesting questions about the nature of love, marriage, and human relationships in THE PILOT'S WIFE. Can we ever fully know the people we love? Can we trust them to be open and honest? And what are the repercussions when that trust is betrayed? THE PILOT'S WIFE is a fascinating chronicle of love, deception, and the consequences of deception. Anita Shreve's novel will leave you wondering just how much you do know about the people closest to you.

Reviewed by Judith Handschuh on January 22, 2011

The Pilot's Wife
by Anita Shreve

  • Publication Date: March 31, 1999
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Paperback: 283 pages
  • Publisher: Back Bay Books
  • ISBN-10: 0316601950
  • ISBN-13: 9780316601955