By : Charity Carter Title: The Pilot’s Wife Author: Anita Shreve Publisher: Little Brown and Company Year of Publication:1999

One of the main characters Kathryn is in her home and is awaken in the early morning around 3:00 by a knock at the door. She goes down stairs to open the door and there was a man from the air force standing there to give her bad news about her husband Jack the pilot who has died. Mrs. Lyons is completely devastated and can’t believe what has happened, and tries to figure out how she will break the news to their daughter Mattie. So she waits later to tell their daughter. Then she goes to ask the man Mr. Hart questions about her husband, Robert Hart tells her that the plane most likely exploded. As he comes to tell her more information about her husband she begins to think he has been hiding things from her.

Protagonist- Kathryn Lyons She is a dynamic character who is going through a tragic time of grief with herself and husband. Kathryn is fifteen years younger than jack and a school teacher. A very practical person is easy to trust in anyone. Antagonist- Jack Lyons He is a true deceptive character. A older man who has been a pilot for some years. Jack has a wife and kids. Although he has a family he is disloyal to the ones that should matter the most. Antagonist- Muire Boland She seems to be an unmindful character about her actions and other people. Muire also has a husband and kids. She lives in Ireland and is also the wife of Jack.

Central Conflict It all involves Jack, Kathryn, and Murie. The problems is that jack first wife Kathryn has found out he's been living a double life and for the last five years been living in Ireland with a second wife and has had two kids with her while still married to Kathryn. As Kathryn begins to find out more information she begins question who she is married to and what he is hiding.

Minor Characters Mattie- She is the daughter of Jack and Kathryn and is also been forced to deal with the fact that her father had died. Robert Hart- A representative of the pilot union he works for the air force. He assigned with telling Kathryn, Jack was dead and help get to the bottom of what really happened and who her husband was. Julia- Is the grandmother of Kathryn. She is at the beginning of the story and helps he granddaughter get through her loss.

What Critics Said The New York Times Books By: Laura Jaminson Said the story was woman fiction and built around romance. The pilot’s wife Kathryn hurtful discovery is after she learns of her husband’s sudden death in a plane crash. After her sudden traumatizing event she begins to unravel certain things about her husband’s hidden life when he was away in flight. She discover that he was living a life away from home with another woman (his mistress). She learned this by going through her deceased husband’s clothing. She found information leading to the fact that he was having an affair, which brought her more pain because she was unable to discuss these findings out with him. Unknowing to her at the time the person to console her was Robert, the very man that informed her of the tragic death about her husband. The author based on her previous books always finds a way to capture readers. Hyperlink- The New York Times Book Browse A happy marriage and family life, so Kathryn thought until she got a knock at her front door at 3a.m. with the shocking news of her husband’s death. Trying to protect her daughter and be strong, just to find out while she tried to get herself together, is when she stumbled upon information in her now deceased husband’s clothing, she learned at that moment that her husband was leading another life in another city/state with another woman. Hurt two times; hearing about her husband’s tragic death from Robert and then days later the shocking discovery of her husband’s affair that she had no ideal was ever going on because they had such a happy marriage. She was left learning things about her husband that she had no clue about, always thinking that he was the perfect husband and father, just to be crushed in the end and no one to turn to, except Robert.

Reader’s Point of View The Pilot’s Wife was very interesting, the plot and raising conflict made me want to read even more. With the characters that she choose it only made the story more captivating. I see now how this book caters toward women more. With the disloyalty and drama between Kathryn and her husband Jack only more problems arose ; but unfortunately Mrs. Lyons begin to find out all of these things once her husband had passed away. I would give this book five stars and I think more people should check it out and read it.