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Fortune's Rocks #3

The Pilot's Wife

anita shreve

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A pilot's wife is taught to be prepared for the late-night knock at the door. But when Kathryn Lyons receives word that a plane flown by her husband, Jack, has exploded near the coast of Ireland, she confronts the unfathomable-one startling revelation at a time. Soon drawn into a maelstrom of publicity fueled by rumors that Jack led a secret life, Kathryn sets out to learn who her husband really was, whatever that knowledge might cost. Her search propels this taut, impassioned novel as it movingly explores the question, How well can we ever really know another person?

295 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1998
Series
Fortune/s Rocks
Places
new hampshire, 

This edition

Format
295 pages, Paperback
Published
March 30, 1999 by Back Bay Books
ISBN
9780316601955
ASIN
0316601950
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for anita shreve

anita shreve

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
40(40%)
4 stars
30(30%)
3 stars
30(30%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Ewinaaa
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A sad/tragic tale which captures the intrusion of media and investigators in a person’s life when they already have a devastating event to process. It’s not a classic mystery but I had not totally solved the life happenings which culminated in the tragic accident. Ultimately there is resolution and some restitution.
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CommanderSheep
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Read: February 2016
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I really enjoyed this story and looking through the top reviews I’m surprised to see so many one and two star ratings. The story focuses on Kathryn; a teacher in her mid-thirties with a teenage daughter and a much older, charismatic husband named Jack. At the start of the book Kathryn receives the news that the airplane Jack was piloting crashed just off the coast of Ireland, and from there the plot centres on how Kathryn struggles to grieve and come to terms with the fact that towards the end of her husband’s life she didn’t really know him at all. I found the story very compelling and it was very easy to empathise with Kathryn and her circumstances.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the  romance she starts with Robert  was unnecessary and a bit forced but also under the circumstances bearing in mind what Kathryn had just discovered about Jack in London I could understand why it would happen.

I liked The Pilot’s Wife more than The Weight of Water which I read a few years ago, and based on this book I would definitely read more by Shreve in the future.
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zckfox
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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4 STARS

"Kathryn Lyons' life turns to chaos when her pilot husband is killed in a plane crash. As she struggles with her grief, Kathryn faces shocking revelations about the secrets a man can keep and the actions a woman is willing to take." (From Amazon)

It's one thing to mourn your dead husband but to mourn a marriage that never existed is more than just heartbreaking. I really felt for her and the lies that she discovers.
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reenfp
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I had forgotten how good this book is. A book that very much puts you in the story. It was well written and a great reading pace. I had to set myself a time to read it, so that I wouldn't ruin the pleasure of the book by reading it too fast.
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Sukamii
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Interesting dive into how well we can really know anyone...
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ZeEvenoh
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Shreve did a good job capturing the main character's grief and confusion, but the book just didn't hold my interest. It was kind of boring in the first two thirds, and then when the main character travelled to England and discovered the "twists," it just seemed kind of silly.
I was also annoyed by the main character falling in love with the union rep. I get that people bond under intense circumstances, but I hate that falling in love seems to be the go to literary reaction. There are other ways for people to bond, and for people to respond to trying times. This wasn't quite as annoying as Bel Canto, because at least it was only one couple and not everyone falling in love, but I still find that convention irritating.
I should have read this on my day off. I found myself kind of embarrassed to be reading a book about a pilot's wife at the airport. It felt too cliche, like I was fantasizing about being a pilot's wife or something. But it was kind of interesting to read something with characters dealing with the crazy aviation schedule. If only it hadn't been so damn melodramatic.
I left the book in the United operations room in Richmond, so maybe someone else will find it who'll like it better.
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_everylayers
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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If you're looking for an uplifting book, this isn't it. I really wavered between 3 and 4 stars, really landing at 3 1/2 if that were an option. I liked the premise (pilot's widow dealing with grief and finding a whole other side to her husband that she never knew existed), I liked the melancholy vibe as it was fitting for the subject. I didn't like all of the flashback scenes and the hurried ending. I would have either put the past in the beginning of the book to make the reader care about the relationships, or I would have shortened them and used that word count to enhance the ending. The plot would have been more convincing/understandable/relatable had the author shed more light on "the cause" and why it mattered to the pilot (yes, the wife was initially in the dark about this but I think she would have asked more questions). I'm sure this was based on real events and groups but the author never even bothered to decode the initials of the terror group and since this was written some time ago, there would be many who are unfamiliar with the IRA (Irish republican Army). Even if it was completely fictitious, I think it deserved more explanation.
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Rajaganja
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Who is the real wife: the one who was protected and was never left behind or the one to whom the deepest secrets were shared?

After fifteen years of marriage, Kathryn Lyons woke up to the news that the plane piloted by her husband Jack crashed, killing 103 passengers. Throughout the investigation, Kathryn unknowingly unraveled the hidden life of her husband and discovered the darkest secrets of the man she thought she knew.

What she discovered were as unbearably painful as Jack’s death itself. She could not fathom the reason behind Jack’s hiding the truth from her, how he managed to become unfaithful for four and a half years being married to another woman with whom he had two kids.

Jack and Kathryn’s family life was extraordinary because they had to deal with frequent absences of the husband due to the nature of his job. They both tried to make arrangements to keep the marriage going but Jack eventually fell in love with one of the flight attendants. Kathryn was busy raising their daughter Mattie and was endlessly waiting for every one of Jack’s homecoming not knowing that he had been living with his other family in a flat in London.

She only discovered everything after Jack’s death. There is no Jack to whom she could have poured all of her anger. However, despite the resentment that Kathryn felt, that kind of feeling diminishes whenever she is reminded that those two kids, though of a different mother, are of the same father as Mattie’s. This very fact connects Kathryn to both of them.

The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve makes us see through the complications of a marriage. It poses several questions that will help us ponder the authenticity, validity and weight of a marriage. What does it really mean to be a partner, to be a wife.

http://flipthrough.wordpress.com/2010...
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