After a friend's darkest secret is revealed, can that friendship survive the revelation? This is the question that faces the characters and challenges the readers of Elizabeth Ames's first novel, The Other's Gold.
After meeting in college, four roommates are linked in a relationship that goes deeper than sisterhood, carrying them through school and into their adult lives. Margaret, whose beauty offers a new definition of brilliance, becomes wealthy through marriage and writes tips for gracious living on a popular blog. Alice, haunted by an act of childhood violence, marries a fellow medical student and pursues an elusive goal of fertility while meeting the demands of being a doctor. Lainey, a passionate activist who achieves fame during Occupy Wall Street, balances her political life with being an ideal mother. Ji Sun, after an act of betrayal, is supported by her family's fortune and tormented by her attraction to Lainey's husband. And yet, while enmeshed in lives that could easily separate them, these women maintain and are nourished by their closeness, even after discovering secrets that threaten to destroy that bond.
Ames takes the familiar story of female friendship into a realm of candor and respect that enters new narrative ground. Her eye for detail is as sharp as Mary McCarthy's in The Group, but without McCarthy's satirical cruelty. Exploring the sensual, visceral and horror-filled experiences of being female while never abandoning the love Ames has for her characters, The Other's Gold is smart and provocative, satisfying and unforgettable. --Janet Brown, author and former bookseller