The Sinner's Guide to Confession

April 28, 2008
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 1, 2008
Three Manhattan friends, who are close as sisters, each guards a secret so deep that shecannot share it with the others.Kaye, married forever and mother of grown children, is in the middle of an intense affair she finds almost addictive. Barbara is a widow who writes for a living. Publicly, she writes romance novels. Under a pseudonym, she writes erotica. She fears that exposure would alienate her fans, friends, and children, but she needs it. And Ellens husband has left her for a younger woman, who hehas gotten pregnant. Ellens marriage was childless, so not only does this hurt but its also the event that brings her own shameful secret to the forefront: she had a child when she was 16 and gave it up for adoption. Schiebers novel explores friendship, the nature of secrets, and how we all harbor them. And although the characters and their acts may not always be likable, they are authentic, and Schiebersstory will resonate long after the last page is read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)