Introduction

Have you ever had a secret so gut-wrenching you couldn't tell anyone, not even the person who shares your bed? Told from the alternating perspectives of a husband and wife who both have something to hide, this incisive novel pulls back the curtain on a seemingly-happy marriage, posing the question: how much do we really know--and how much should we want to know--about the people we love the most?

After five long years, the unshakable confidence Cass Coyne felt as a bride is gone. Her husband, Jonathan, on the other hand, is still smitten. It's true that the quirks he once found charming in his wife--her high standards, her refusal to clean the dishes--are beginning to grate. But for him, these are minor challenges in a healthy relationship.

So it comes as a complete shock to Jonathan when Cass suddenly requests a marital "intermission": a six-month separation during which they'll decide if the comfortable life they've built is still the one they both want.

Aside from a monthly custodial exchange of their beloved dog, contact will be limited. But as the months pass, they begin to see that calculated silences just like these have helped to drive them apart--and that it may finally be time to confront the blistering secrets they've been avoiding.

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Excerpt

1. Cass

Cass Coyne was thinking a lot about her marriage lately. Particularly, she found herself wondering how much joy she should derive from it. Or maybe joy was ambitious, and it was really complacency she should be after. She just didn't know what was normal to expect to feel on a daily basis. It didn't seem correct that after five years of marriage she was evaluating her relationship with her husband like it was an item in the grocery store she was considering purchasing. A melon probed for firmness. Sweetness. Or that she sometimes pictured her marriage like a snow globe, the delicate flakes inside representing the past, present and future, and that no matter how it all shook out, it didn't seem to settle properly. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1) Do you think it can ever be good for a marriage to take an intermission? What might the potential benefits be?

2) Who did you find to be more: Likable? Relatable? Sympathetic? Cass or Jonathan.

3) Is it okay for spouses to keep secrets from each other? If so, under what circumstances?

4) Were you surprised about the way things turned out? Is it what you thought was the right thing?

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