Life Sentences Summary
Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life
on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed
for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers—and herself.
But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she
may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to
nonfiction.
When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle-class
neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged
Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their
world—a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins—who, years later,
would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found
and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for
contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally
forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery,
largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.
But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by
everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra's
success—and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by
delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently
unearth a few of her own—forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most
precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's
betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed
not only a family but an entire country.
