A hidden past.
An uncertain future.
An impossible choice.
A Hidden Fate
by Carol Efron
Genre: Women’s Fiction
A poignant novel of
love under fire about a woman who must find the courage to face an uncertain
future—and an impossible choice.
Baltimore, 1986. Julia and Matt are newlyweds, in love and eager to begin
graduate school. Julia longs to leave behind haunting memories of her mother’s
devastating decline in Maryland, but she unexpectedly learns the truth her
father has hidden: Her mother died of a fatal genetic illness. Julia now faces
a 50 percent chance of inheriting the same fate, and every child she longs to
have will carry the same risk.
When an unplanned pregnancy rocks their careful plans, Julia and Matt face
agonizing uncertainty and impossible choices. Desires and convictions pull them
toward starkly different paths, each possibly leading to misery.
As the couple struggles to protect the fragile, fierce love that first bound
them together, they face the cost of secrets and the ache of betrayal—but they
also discover the hope of forgiveness.
What readers
are saying:
“…the richly drawn characters and the emotional depth of
Julia’s journey make for a deeply affecting novel whose moral questions linger
long after the story’s end.” —Kirkus
Reviews (starred review)
“This moving novel will appeal to fans of intimate,
issue-driven fiction about women’s choices, inherited trauma, and the hidden
costs of love. Great for fans of: Lisa
Genova’s Inside the O’Briens, Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of
Water” —Publisher’s
Weekly Booklife Review
“Family secrets, the rights of parents, maternal love and
the importance of living one’s life to the fullest all come into play as Julia,
the protagonist in Carol Efron’s intriguing novel, faces an excruciating and
fateful decision.” —Jerry Burger PhD author
of Shadows of 1915: A Novel
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the night before their much-debated move from Manhattan. She inhaled
deeply. Would there be a Szechuan restaurant half as good
in Baltimore?
Probably not, she thought, and tried to push away a swarm of negative feelings about
Maryland.
The hostess seated them at a narrow table. When Matt rested
his calf against Julia’s, she
appreciated the warmth of the love he conveyed in this familiar gesture. They’d dined here frequently
when they started
dating. She let herself feel nostalgic about meeting each other in a freshman
astronomy class, stealing kisses in the NYU library, visiting iconic New York sites as they were
falling in love. She wouldn’t have chosen to move from the Village if Matt didn’t believe—reasonably—that they needed to settle in Baltimore
to further his career. But she adored him; she’d follow him where he had to go if it didn’t ruin her chance to become a historian.
“Just one more push on the packing and we’ll finish well before
midnight,” he said after they placed their order.
The meal turned out to be even more delicious than usual. They ate quickly.
When they requested the check, the waitress asked if they’d
like fortune cookies.
“Skip them,” Matt said. “We don’t have time.”
“Oh, but they’re fresh today,” the waitress said. “And maybe you’ll
get good tidings.”
“Do you believe the fortunes?” Julia asked. They’d often chatted
with this invariably upbeat waitress and Julia was curious about her
views.
The woman shrugged. “No, but a fortune can be an opportunity
to reflect on where we want to go. Perhaps especially useful since you’re
newly married.”
“Good point,” Julia said. “Besides, I feel like something sweet.” She nudged Matt under the table as the waitress
bustled off. “I know you don’t have any patience
for superstition, but would you want to know your future? If
you could?”
“Learning his future didn’t work out so well for Oedipus.”
She laughed. “You’re awfully literary
tonight. Has something rubbed off on you from helping me pack all my
novels?”
“Come on, I’m far more than a stodgy physicist.”
“I know you are, so stop teasing.
I’d like an answer.” Maybe it was the weight of the move bearing down on her, but Julia’s
question wasn’t casual. Given her mother’s fate, sometimes she worried
about her own health. She lacked the almost reflex optimism she’d observed in most of her friends,
none of whom had lost a parent in their childhood.
“Okay,” he said, “seriously, being a scientist, I like predicting
things. But as to knowing
my own fate . . . I’m not sure.
How ’bout you?”
“It depends on the answers. I’d be thrilled to shed my concerns
about getting my mother’s mental
illness.”
He reached for her hand. “Oh Jule, her doctors said her psy-chosis was due to multiple
sclerosis. And the articles you found in the library confirmed
what your own doctor told you: that there isn’t much chance you’ll get
MS.”
“I know, but—”
The waitress returned with the
cookies. “I’ll miss seeing you,” she said. “I wish you all the best.”
They wished her the same. Matt cracked
one cookie open and pulled out the slip. “Embrace uncertainty—it’s where the magic
begins,” he read. “I’m not sold on that.”
“It might be good advice,” Julia said.
“Perhaps.”
She took a cookie and extracted her fortune: “Seek not the future but
the wisdom to shape it.” She handed him the slip. “Wise since I can’t know
what life will bring.”
He glanced at it. “Agreed.
I hope you enjoyed your cookies.
But we should leave.” He smiled. “The movers might
actually show up on time.”
“At the crack of dawn? Dream on. Still, we better be ready.”
When they stood, Matt drew her to him and kissed her. She delighted in the softness
of his lips and the tang of the ginger
on his breath.
“We’re headed for a great
year,” he said,
kissing her again. Here he was, ridiculing fortune-telling but doing it himself.
Julia smiled to herself at his contradictions.
She had to acknowledge her own: feeling apprehensive about
moving to Baltimore
yet eager to get there to start the first chap-ter
of their married life.
She straightened her
spine. “Let’s go,” she said. They stepped out into the bright lights and quirky sights of the West Village.
Carol earned her MD from Johns Hopkins, served on the
faculty at Stanford and John Hopkins, and built a thriving private practice in
Silicon Valley. Working on the front lines of genetic testing, she felt an
urgent need to write this book, and she would love to talk to you about how
these real-world experiences inspired her debut novel, along with the broader
implications of genetic testing.
