The Truth of the Matter

Agnes Scofield, the heroine of Dew's lovely, low-key period piece, can join Mrs. Ramsay and Mrs. Bridge at the tea table of exquisitely etched literary matrons. A respectable Ohio widow with three grown children, Agnes is beginning to carve out an independent middle-aged life for herself (which includes a secret lover) when, in 1947, her children all suddenly return to town. They have full lives of their own but take for granted that Mother will always put supper on the table and never step outside her role as self-sacrificing, sexless matriarch. Dew's achievement is to capture both Agnes' ambivalence about these demands and the dignity in her struggle to meet them.

-Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)

Author: Robb Forman Dew
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published: 11/03/2006
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.18h x 5.52w x 0.96d
ISBN: 9780316013307

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 12/10/2006 pg. 32

About the Author
Robb Forman Dew was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the past thirty years she has lived in Williamstown, MA, where she lives with her husband, who is professor of history at Williams College.

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dew is the author of the novels Dale Loves Sophie to Death, for which she received the National Book Award; The Time of Her Life; Fortunate Lives; The Evidence Against Her; and, most recently, The Truth of the Matter; as well as a memoir, The Family Heart.