SHADOWS HOLD THEIR BREATH

A woman’s fateful decision colors and molds her future in Robinson’s third novel.

Kat Hunter, a model wife, is haunted by her sister-in-law’s death years earlier in Vietnam—Beth was her best friend—and by inchoate feelings of suffocation. One night, she steals away from her husband and three daughters as they sleep, hoping to come back home in a couple of weeks—as a better wife and mother, cured of her malaise. But weeks turn into months as she makes a new life for herself in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A bitter divorce ensues, and it looks as if she will never see her daughters again. Kat hides the details of her past from new friends Molly Fisher, a free spirit whom she meets on the bus during her first night away; Molly’s boyfriend, Jake, who turns out to be a violent abuser; and, most importantly, Wyatt Jenkins, whom Kat eventually marries. She lets people assume that she fled from an abusive husband, a husband who was in fact not abusive but just a clueless male chauvinist. When that truth comes out, she is punished anew by many in the community and even, for a time, by Wyatt, who is confused and hurt. To Robinson’s credit, the ending is not the “Kumbaya” outcome some readers might hope for. The characters are well drawn, as are the tight community of Gatlinburg and the beautiful surrounding countryside. The story is punctuated by letters Beth sent back to Kat from Vietnam. Does Kat regret that she is not the brave spirit that Beth was? Has she always been living the wrong life? In truth, we are never quite clear about what caused her to leave home. This is a story about grabbing what happiness one can while also living with pain that may never really go away. That is what makes it an honest novel for grown-ups.

An impressive and thoughtful exploration of the mistakes good people make.