Life Sentences

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her lifeon the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly acclaimedfor the... » 

Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her lifeon the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly acclaimedfor their brutal unexpurgated candor about friends family loversandherself. But now after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction Cassandrabelieves she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant returnto nonfiction. When Cassandra was a girl growing up in a racially diversemiddleclass neighborhood in Baltimore her best friends were all blackelegant privileged Donna sharp shrewd Tisha wild and worldly Fatima. Afifth girl orbited their worlda shy quiet unobtrusive child named CalliopeJenkinswho years later would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet theboys body was never found and Calliopes unrelenting silence on the subjectforced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years Calliope refused tospeak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes thisstill unsolved reallife mystery largely unknown outside Baltimore could beher next bestseller. But her homecoming and latest journey into the pastwill not be welcomed by everyone especially by her former friends who areunimpressed with Cassandras successand are insistent on their own version oftheir shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliopes dark secretsCassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her ownforcing her to reexaminethe memories she holds most precious as the stark light of truth illuminates amothers pain a fathers betrayal . . . and what really transpired on aterrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country. «