A lively cast of characters fills Clare's London-based second novel. When her husband, Jack, dies, Clattie Palmer is left with the unpleasant task of telling her three grown children that they have a half-brother whom they never knew existed. The real love of Jack's life, it seems, was Shirley, with whom he had a son, Titus, shortly after he and Clattie were married. The two sides of the family meet at the funeral, but with "suspicious eyes flickering over each other" no familial bond is forged. Ralph, Clattie's oldest child at 54, is openly antagonistic, seeing Titus as a "marauder," taking away his role of eldest son. Hugh, who was largely ignored by their father, embarks on a business venture with Titus, but never really trusts him. Despite this rancor, Clattie manages to carry on with her own life, find love with an old friend, and ultimately help each of the siblings put buried secrets behind them, so they, too, can proceed without the stifling bitterness that sadly overtook their father. Deborah Donovan
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Product Description
With the insight, compassion, and life-affirming drama that have invited comparisons to Rosamunde Pilcher, Lucy Clare, author of Hoping for Hope, gives readers another unforgettable protagonist in Clattie Palmer: mother, widow, and a woman just coming into her own.
When Jack dies, he leaves behind Clattie, his wife of more than half a century, and three grown children. He also leaves a devastating secret: the child he fathered with another woman. Clattie is left to tell her children about the brother they never knew they had.
As her children, Ralph, Pippa, and Hugh, struggle to adjust to the realization that they have a half-brother, Clattie finds that a new life has grown from her old one.
Breaking the Trust is about the limiting-and liberating-bonds of familial love, which try our patience, test our courage, and arouse our deepest angers and fiercest feelings of love.
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