Secrets Come To Light/The Gilder
Ben Franklin once said, “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.” Many books have been written about the devastating effects of protecting a dark secret, only to have it spill into light at the most inopportune time, hurting ourselves and those around us.
In The Gilder, by Kathyrn Kay, a thirty nine-year-old master guilder and single mother named Marina has been invited to speak at a prestigious art conference in Florence, Italy. She feels honored by the request, but does she have the courage to return to Florence and confront the secrets and lies she has harbored in her heart the past sixteen years?
Marina’s fifteen-year-old daughter has started asking questions about her father. From the time Zoe was a young child, Marina told her daughter her father had died before she was born. One day, Zoe digs through the attic and finds newspaper clippings reporting her father’s actual death. She realizes that Marina had lied to her. Zoe runs away from home and refuses to speak to her mother. Marina deeply regrets the secrets and lies and realizes the truth must come out.
The Gilder is a story about what happens when a good person makes a bad decision – a mistake – and covers it up. Secrets rarely remain secrets forever. How does a person live with the betrayal, lies, and deception clogging the way to her heart? Is there a way to move forward and find forgiveness?
-Angie Dilmore