“It was impossible to know if what I thought was the truth.” – Willa
Sometimes a lie goes undiscovered for so long that it becomes the “truth.” This kind of lie can affect the worldview of everyone who believes it. If the truth does finally come out, everyone’s world would shatter. In the small town of Macedonia, a fire at the mill took the life of a young man whom everyone (well, almost everyone) believes set the fire. The truth would never be uncovered except for a little girl following her desire to get to know her father better.
I picked up The Truth According to Us because one of my favorite books was co-written by this author, Annie Barrows. She helped write The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with her aunt Mary Ann Shafer, who developed health problems during the writing process. (Read the review of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society here.) I also chose this book for my first Online Book Club.
Willa is being raised by her Aunt Jottie and her father, Felix. Felix travels a lot for his job and depends on his sister to watch Willa and her little sister, Bird. They see their mother occasionally, but Felix has custody. Willa doesn’t know what her father does for a living or why her aunt is so sad sometimes, so she begins to observe and pay attention to life around her. She follows her father and listens to her aunt’s conversations and ends up discovering things her father had hidden many years ago.
This book was interesting, but it switches points of view without warning, which can be confusing. There are also letters back and forth during the book, which adds some to the confusion of which character is talking. Willa, her aunt and a boarder who visits the town to write its history, all change dramatically during the events in the book and grow. I think this would be a good book club book because it is an interesting plot and I know I wanted to have someone to talk to about the ending.
Discuss the book with us on the Online Book Club page.