Let Us Be True
Erna Buffie2015

From the killing fields of Europe, to the merciless beauty of the Canadian prairies, Let Us Be True tells the story of three women, whose lives have been shaped and damaged by secrets – their own and those that stretch back through time, casting their shadow from one generation to the next.

At the heart of the novel is 74-year-old Pearl Calder, a woman who has thrown away her past and kept it a secret from her daughters. But as Pearl confronts her own mortality, she begins to understand what her dead husband, Henry, has always known. Secrets are like dark and angry ghosts. And they don’t just haunt you. They haunt everyone you love.

Alternating between Pearl’s voice and the voices of her family, both living and dead, each chapter in Let Us Be True offers a different perspective on one woman’s life. With each story and each new voice comes a deeper understanding of Pearl, her secret past and the people she has loved. But will her daughters, Carol and Darlene, two women locked in their own anger and caught up in their own secrets, ever know the full truth about their mother’s past, and if they do, will they find it in their hearts to forgive her? And in forgiving, will they finally find a way to be true to themselves and the people they love?

Titre original : Let Us Be True (2015)