Disclaimer

Fifty-year-old Catherine is the book’s protagonist. Normally, Catherine is calm and collected, but the book opens with a dramatic upset in her composure, since she now fears that a secret she had been hiding will be exposed. In 1993, Catherine was sexually assaulted by Jonathan Brigstocke while on vacation in Spain with her son Nicholas. Jonathan later died saving Nicholas from floating out to sea. Catherine saw Jonathan’s death as justice for his crime, so she never spoke of this incident to her family or police. Catherine’s behavior is thoroughly altered by the need to keep her secret, as “the act of keeping the secret a secret has almost become bigger than the secret itself” (29). She frequently lies to explain her nervous behavior, like blaming her sweats and insomnia on menopause. Catherine loves Nicholas, but when he was a child, seeing him brought up traumatic memories, so she distanced herself from him by throwing herself into her work. Catherine recognizes that she should have told Robert about her and Nicholas’s experience earlier, but the fear brought on by memories of the incident often physically prevents her from speaking. Throughout the text, all of Catherine’s interactions are riddled with paranoia and anxiety.