Book description
What are the lies we tell ourselves and others that get us through our lives?
In the summer of 1981 Anna is suddenly offered the opportunity to study
English at McGill University in Montreal. She jumps at the chance,
leaving behind her job, her husband, and her country - Poland. She meets
William, a music professor, and falls in love. Back home, martial law is declared.
After almost ten years of marriage, William dies suddenly of a heart
attack, and Anna is left to pick up the pieces. In the midst of
grieving, she discovers more pieces than expected: for the length of
their lives together, William carried on a long-distance affair with a
woman journalist in Germany.
In search of truth, Anna returns to a dramatically changed Europe,
where Communism has fallen, the Berlin Wall has been torn down, and
where, once again, history will have to be rewritten. Probing the depths
of betrayal and forgiveness, she confronts her own past and the motives
that drove her away from Poland; she sees herself through the eyes of
her mother, her ex-husband, and most importantly, William's German
lover, Ursula.
Necessary Lies
tells the story of the discovery of secrets and lies that stitch
together empires and individual lives. ""[Stachniak's] human
comedy is the oldest and best sort. Woven through the inevitable sadness
is wonder at the revelation of human complexity and resilience."
Eva Stachniak was born in Wroc?aw, Poland, and came to Canada in 1981.
Her debut novel, Necessary Lies
, won the Amazon. com/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and her second
novel, Garden of Venus
, has been translated into seven languages. Her third novel, The
Winter Palace
, has been published across the world. Stachniak lives in Toronto.
