**From the New York Times bestselling author of Big Lies in a Small
Town
**
It is 1960 in North Carolina and the lives of Ivy Hart and Jane
Forrester couldn't be more different. Fifteen-year-old Ivy lives with
her family as tenants on a small tobacco farm, but when her parents die,
Ivy is left to care for her grandmother, older sister, and nephew. As
she struggles with her grandmother's aging, her sister's mental illness,
and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can
give.
When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County's newest social
worker, she is given the task of recommending which of her clients
should be sterilized without their knowledge or consent. The state's
rationalization is that if her clients are poor, or ill, or deemed in
some way unfit they should not be allowed to have children. But soon
Jane becomes emotionally invested in her clients' lives, causing tension
with her new husband and her supervisors. No one understands why Jane
would want to become a caseworker for the Department of Public Health
when she could be a housewife and Junior League member. As Jane is drawn
in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small
farm--secrets much darker than she would have guessed. Soon, she must
decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing a
life-changing battle.
*
Necessary Lies* is the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds
apart, but both haunted by tragedy. Jane and Ivy are thrown together and
must ask themselves: How can you know what you believe is right, when
everyone is telling you it's wrong?
