The Secret Between Us (31 page)

Reading Group Companion

Introduction

Showcasing the taut, perceptive storytelling that has made Barbara Delinsky one of America’s most alluring novelists,
The Secret Between Us
features a family that is forced to confront its greatest frailties while hiding a dangerous secret from their small-town community.

The questions and topics that follow are designed to enhance your reading of
The Secret Between Us
. We hope they will enrich your experience of this riveting novel.

Discussion Topics

1. What did the scenes depicting the accident reveal about the family dynamics between Deborah and Grace?

2. How does Deborah reconcile her role as a mother with her role as a daughter? What aspects of her upbringing does she try to avoid repeating?

3. Do Jill and Deborah remember their mother the same way? How is their family affected by her absence? What accounts for the distinctions between Jill’s and Deborah’s paths in life?

4. Discuss the power and lack of power created by the many secrets woven throughout the novel. Which deceptions (including self-deceptions) harm the characters the most? Which deceptions are unavoidable?

5. Compare Grace and Dylan. How do they cope with their vulnerabilities? Do they respond to their parents’ divorce in essentially the same way, or are their temperaments distinct?

6. Why was Calvin so secretive during his lifetime? What do his brother’s observations about their childhood tell us about Calvin’s outlook on life?

7. Why was it difficult for Karen to realize the truth about Hal’s infidelity? What sustains marriages such as theirs?

8. What does it take for Deborah to trust Tom? How might their relationship have unfolded without the tension of a possible lawsuit on the part of Calvin’s widow? In Tom’s case, did the law help or hinder his quest for the truth?

9. Is Grace’s wish to take responsibility for the accident related to her feelings about her parents’ divorce? Does Greg respond appropriately to her self-destructive behavior?

10. What was Greg looking for when he married Rebecca? How is his perception of himself and his family transformed in the novel’s closing chapters?

11. Why does Grace give Danielle the cold shoulder when she so badly needs someone to talk to? What do their fathers have in common?

12. What is it like to live in a close-knit community such as Leyland? On what basis do the residents judge one another? How would Deborah and Grace’s situation have changed if the accident had taken place in a large city?

13. In the end, was justice served by John’s decision? What was his share of the responsibility in perpetuating the secret?

About the Author

The author of more than sixteen bestselling novels, Barbara Delinsky was a sociologist and photographer before she began to write fiction. A lifelong New Englander, she and her husband have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and a cat. There are more than twenty million copies of her books in print. Visit
www.barbaradelinsky.com
.

Also by Barbara Delinsky

Family Tree

The Woman Next Door

Coast Road

Three Wishes

For My Daughters

More Than Friends

PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY

Copyright © 2008 by Barbara Delinsky

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States by Doubleday, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY
and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Delinsky, Barbara.

The secret between us / Barbara Delinsky.—1st ed.

p. cm.

1. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3554.E4427S423 2007

813'.54—dc22

2007031294

eISBN: 978-0-385-52545-9

v3.0