''The Pilot's Wife : A Novel'' is a 1998 novel by

Anita Shreve Anita Hale Shreve (1946 – March 29, 2018) was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, '' Past the Island, Drifting'' (published in 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976. Early years a ...

. It is chronologically the third novel in Shreve's informal trilogy to be set in a large beach house on the

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

coast that used to be a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

. It is preceded by '' Fortune's Rocks'' and '' Sea Glass''. The novel was chosen as an

Oprah's Book Club Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new book, usually a novel, for viewers ...

selection for March 1999.

Plot summary

The novel is about Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack Lyons, dies in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of

Malin Head Malin Head ( ga, Cionn Mhálanna) is the most northerly point of mainland Ireland, located in the townland of Ardmalin on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. The head's northernmost point is called Dunalderagh at latitude 55.38ºN. It is ...

, Ireland. As she and her daughter Mattie try to cope with this sudden loss, she finds herself bombarded by the press. While she and the airlines try to find the reason for the crash, she slowly unravels a series of secrets her husband has kept from her until she realizes that he lived a double life she never knew about.

Adaptation

The novel was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 2002 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

References

External links

The book's page on Oprah's Book Club websiteIMDB listing of TV movie
1998 American novels Novels set in New Hampshire American novels adapted into films American novels adapted into television shows {{1990s-novel-stub