Introduction

Kai Ingersohn was motivated to become a psychiatrist after a childhood of dysfunction with her tempestuous and manic-depressive grandmother, Dumpling. Now divorced, in private practice, and raising two teenagers, she starts work with Stephanie, a young grad student with acute leukemia, who has returned to Charleston and its mystic healing waters and marsh to fight for her life. Stephanie braves the revelations of shocking family secrets, while Kai seeks peace with her own past as the therapy unfolds. Both women emerge with new capacities for love, life, and spiritual truths. This is a powerful work from a novelist whose story reflects her real-life experiences as a psychiatrist in Charleston. Set against a lush Lowcountry backdrop of Spanish moss, salt marshes, silent oaks, and the pounding sea, The Hours Between Us is an artful exploration of the heartbreaking struggles and unbreakable spirits of two extraordinary women.

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Excerpt

My first impression of Stephanie was that she was a caged tigress, relentlessly pacing the confines of my small waiting room. As I walked into the secretarial reception area to speak to Sarah about a prescription call to a pharmacy, I glanced up through the small sliding glass window to the waiting room and saw her. She was tall and thin, moving with a feline grace that couldn’t conceal a tightly confined, almost frenetic energy within. She wore a light blue warm-up suit and white tennis shoes, their winged symbol splashed across the jacket’s pocket and sides of the shoes. Her long, blond hair was pulled into a ponytail and laced through the back of a white baseball cap with the matching Nike logo front and center. She was alone in the waiting area. It was five o’clock and she was my last patient of the day. She had asked for a two-hour session and I had conceded to ninety minutes, which was the ideal time for an evaluation. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

How do you think the main character's point of view is similar or different from the author's point of view or background?

What moral/ethical choices did the characters make? What did you think of those choices? How would you have chosen?

How does the setting of the book impact the story?

If you had to choose one lesson that the author was trying to teach us with this story, what would it be?

Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their
predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

How would you react if you were in the same situation?

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