New Book - The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain (Pages 1 - 155)

 First Published: 2010

This novel is told from the perspective of two sisters: Maya and Rebecca. 

They are very different. While Rebecca is wild and determined, Maya is shy and self-contained. These two sisters have been brought together by tragedy. When Maya was fourteen, her parents were murdered by a masked man, who later turned out to be one of her father's former students, and the police shot him dead when they found him. Maya didn't have to go to foster care because Rebecca, who was already eighteen at the time, looked after her.

From the first moment we know of that event in their lives, we also discover that the two sisters keep lies about their past, and they never talk about the death of their parents.

Now at present time both sisters are doctors. Rebecca works for the Doctors International Disaster Aid, and that takes her to all corners of the world. Maya is a pediatric orthopedist and works in a hospital. Her husband is Adam, who is an anaesthologist. Both Maya and Adam long for a child, but Maya has had three miscarriages, and now she is pregnant for the fourth time. Maya and Sam are optimistic as she has gone beyond the sixteen-week mark, and they plan to announce the good news. Yet, Maya miscarries again, which causes grief to both of them. For Sam having a child of his own is important. Actually, he divorced his first wife because she didn't want to be a mother.

A hurricane strikes North Carolina, and Rebecca is sent to help, and Adam also volunteers, leaving Maya behind. It is mayhem there, but soon Adam learns the ropes. The woman running the organisation, Dorothea, expresses that Maya should be helping too. Adam seems to think that Maya should be out of her depth, and Rebecca doesn't want her sister there. The attitude of Rebecca towards her sister is quite confusing. She is very protective of her and even treats her like a child on occasion. At the same time, she admits to envy her, and she doesn't want her in her field. Then in the few days she and Adam are together in the airport where the injuries are brought, she feels attracted to Adam.

When Adam calls Maya and hints that she should go there, Maya refuses. Yet, a few days later Maya volunteers and joins her husband and sister. She seems to cope well, especially when it comes to treating children. A few days later there are three injured people to be airlifted to the hospital, one of whom is a child with a shot wound. Maya has to go on the helicopter, and on the way there the helicopter crashes.

Rebecca and Adam are desperate as the helicopter is being tracked down, and it is finally located. The pilot and one of the injured men are found dead, but there is no trace of the other people. It seems reasonable to think that they fell from the helicopter, probably into the river, and died. However, Maya is alive. Someone found her and took her to some shelter where a young woman called Simmee is looking after her. When Maya tells her that she needs to return to the airport, Simmee tells her that they are trapped as the rising water has made the shelter into a island and they can't leave, and the phone lines are down as well.

I think this is going to cause problems. Rebecca and Adam are going to think Maya is dead, and in their common grief they may even find more than comfort in each other, and this could lead to some consequences that may be damaging when Maya reappears.