Necessary Lies

The breakthrough novel by best-selling novelist Diane Chamberlain explores the darkest and most optimistic corners of the human heart, set fifty years ago in a little southern town.

Ivy Hart, then fifteen, is left to take care of her grandmother, elder sister, and nephew while renting a small tobacco farm after the death of her parents. She becomes aware that they could need more than she can provide as she battles her own epilepsy, her sister's mental illness, and the ageing of her grandma.

Jane Forrester is unaware of how much assistance is required when she starts work as Grace County's newest social worker. She becomes emotionally involved in her customers' life very fast, which strains her relationship with both her new husband and her employer. However, when Jane becomes enamoured with the Hart ladies, she learns far darker truths about the modest farm than she ever would have imagined. She will soon have to choose between risking losing the fight against all she feels is wrong and doing dramatic to assist them.

In a period of racial unrest and state-mandated sterilisations in rural Grace County, North Carolina, Necessary Lies chronicles the tale of two young ladies who, despite their seeming differences, are both plagued by tragedy. After being pushed together, Jane and Ivy have to question themselves how they can know what they think is right while everyone is telling them otherwise.