One of the best debut novels I have read in ages. Johnson’s writing style is succinct and yet her narrative complete. A young Black woman from a small Indiana border state, along the Wabash rive. She departed her despairing life to attend Yale and become a chemical engineer, but left behind her family and a secret she has never told her successful husband. She returns to her hometown and family to face and reconcile her troubled lie only to uncover more lies. But, are they kind lies?

I was originally going to say that this book isn’t for me but maybe it is. I cannot relate to the people, lives or most of the economic statuses. But thinking a little more, maybe that’s why it should be for me. This would make an excellent book club book for those who want to have a serious conversation about race and class, as well as choices women/mothers make. And probably a long one. It’s also good to just ponder on. I personally don’t think it’s the right title.

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but I walked away being pleasantly surprised. At 17 years of age Ruth Tuttle found herself pregnant and not fully ready to commit to be a parent—and with the help of her family she is able relinquish that responsibility and go into the world and follow her dreams. I don’t agree with this decision but as I continued to read, I understood why she did what she had to do. Fast forward a few years later—Ruth is happily married to the man of dreams and he is putting on the pressure of starting a family. You get where I’m going here? Yeah, Ruth never told her husband about her past and now that he wants a family, she must come clean. Again, a very bad decision on her part. In order to save her marriage Ruth, returns home and discovers things are worse than she expected. Determined to make things right and find peace—Ruth stubbles upon some unexpected family secrets and befriends Midnight, a young white boy who too is looking for closure. Obviously there much more to the book than what I’m writing here, but its so worth the read. There are so many layers and depth to the characters that will have you flipping the pages for more. To be 100% honest there were some characters connections I felt were force, but it wasn’t enough for me to stop reading. Great writing and some important issues were addresses. Overall, this ended up being a great solid read— go ahead and add this one your list.

Thank you, William Morrow for this gifted copy.

This book has such amazing reviews so far, so I really thought I’d enjoy it. I must be in the minority with this one. I could not find interest in the story. I was hopeful that maybe I would like Midnight’s chapters, since Ruth wasn’t doing it for me, but that didn’t happen either. I really loved the beginning, with the election and getting to know the characters, but once Ruth went home it started to slow down for me. I couldn’t really find any of the characters that likable. Overall, this book was a bit of a slow burn.. to much so for me

Set as Barack Obama is elected president, many blacks in America hope for some type of change. Xavier feels the excitement. He and his Yale-educated wife Ruth have everything, Now they just need to start a family. When Ruth tells him she had a child 11 years ago and give him up for adoption, she finds herself on a path back home to Indiana to locate the son she gave up. She finds life in her old hometown is so different from her life in Chicago. Jobs are scarce, people are poor and her family is hanging together by a thread. And racism abounds. When a racist incident stirs the tensions, Ruth must decide what is best for her son.

After the events of this year, I wonder how the author feels about whether anything has changed for blacks in America since Obama was president. I fear we have a long way to go.

It took me a while to get into this book but I really liked it in the end. The main character's story builds slowly but by the end I found that I really cared about the her and the other characters in the book. It shows how race and poverty color every decision we make and how African Americans are treated differently from day one and so have to act differently in order to survive and thrive in America.
Sometimes the people we love the most and who love us, lie to us because they think its the right thing to do. And maybe at the time it is.

The Kindest Lie is a touching novel about the impact of the choices we make, what it means to be a mother, family secrets, race and class in small, working class America. It was well written and thought provoking, and I will be recommending it my book club for 2021!

Thank you, Netgalley, William Morrow and Custom House, for allowing me to preview this story!

Topical and insightful, this debut novel by Nancy Johnson explores the power and consequences of a lie and how those consequences can affect one'e entire life. Already on many "best novels of the Winter" lists, The Kindest Lie is a novel to watch for, and one that is a recommended purchase for public libraries.

Ruth is a successful engineer living in Chicago with her kind and loving husband, He is eager to start a family but Ruth is still hurting from the baby she gave up as a teenager. Ruth returns to the town she grew up in to face her past and the secrets her family has kept from her for years.
This book was so well written, engaging and hard to put down. The author explores class divides and racial inequalities throughout the book and uses a multiple narrative to help the reader understand each point of view. The characters are honest and well developed and their struggles are heartbreaking and real. I highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the Book Club girls for an early digital copy.

4 ½ stars

Mistakes can haunt you for your entire life, especially if you walk away from them.. Ruth Tuttle is learning that. When her husband discovers her secret and they argue. She decides to head back home to confront her biggest error.

This is a good story about good people doing the best they can as they deal with the curve balls that life throws them. I did feel that there was a lot of reputation in this book as Ruth constantly went over what she’d done, why she’d done it, and how it happened. It is sad, but all comes together in the end, leaving Ruth, and the reader, with a sense of hope.

I did like the characters, especially Xavier, Ruth’s husband, and Ernestine, Ruth’s mother. The little boy Ruth befriends, Midnight (Patrick), is a confused little boy caught in the middle of several bad situations. He’s smart. He wants to be good, but it’s hard when he has no one to teach and guide him. He’s also terrified that his grandmother and father intend to send him away to live with relatives who are strangers to him.

While the writing is very good, the beginning of the book is top heavy with an overabundance of characters, which slowed down reading. As the story progresses, most of those characters fade into the background, and the tale becomes clearer. Only a handful of those initial characters are present through the body of the work.

This wasn’t my favorite type of novel, but in the end, it was a very good read.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank them for their generosity in sharing this book with me, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

This is a timely story set in 2008 as Obama is ready to begin his presidency.
A well intended lie enables a poor black girl to rise out of poverty and escape her troubled childhood. When she returns home several years later she is confronted by the past and the decisions made by her family that shaped her life.

As 2020 wraps up as one of the craziest years in modern American history, 'The Kindest Lie' starts in one of the most pivotal years for American history. An election watch party at the home of Ruth and Xavier. Obama is about to make history as Ruth's past comes to haunt her present. Ruth realizes in order to protect her present she must come to terms with her past. This includes going to the town she grew up in where she starts a strange friendship with a lonely 11 year old boy named Midnight/Patrick. This book has dual narrators with Ruth and Midnight and seeing certain instances from a black woman's viewpoint followed by a white child's shows how far we still need to go in terms of racial equality and justice. I laughed, I cried, and I got angry. Most of all I took some deep breaths and thought about my place in the world and what I can do to make it better for all..
I connected with all the characters and feel like Nancy Johnson will be one of those authors I keep checking for her next book.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!! I will definitely be recommending this one!!!

An engrossing, contemporary read about Ruth, a Chicago-based Engineer and her journey to find the long ago baby she had abandoned before agreeing to have children with her current husband. Full of twists and intrigue as Ruth travels back to her past town and life to unravel secrets long ago buried and for good reason. The author describes racial tension, injustices, and inequalities in a way that spoke to me. A highly recommended novel which had an amazing goal of broaching a topic you wouldn't normally see in a novel in this genre. I was blown away by the skill of this debut novel and anticipate many more works to follow.

The Kindest Lie tackles the difficult (and timely) subjects of race and class and life today for a young black couple....but it’s also about secrets.
You can feel the joy when the book opens in Chicago as Ruth and Xavier are celebrating Barack Obama’s election with their friends. Me. Johnson captures the vibrancy of life in Chicago in the present day as well as the time-ravaged town of Ganton, where Ruth grew up.
Ruth and Xavier are an upwardly mobile couple with important jobs in burgeoning careers. They’re settling into married life and their first home when their marriage hits a crisis point around the subject of having a baby.
There’s a lot of deep-seated anger and resentment in Ruth and you see a very different character in the middle of the book, versus at the beginning and the end. And that Ruth is not always a very likable character. Overall, they were an interesting couple with depth and I think there’s potential for a sequel so we can see where they go in life, work and their marriage/family.
I liked how the author tackled the issues of race and class, and she did so in a somewhat unique manner. It’s also beautifully written and great debut effort.
Thanks to The Book Club Girl Early Read Program and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Kindest Lie in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel is set in the not-so-distant past. The story begins in Chicago, shortly after the economic collapse in the U.S. and the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Ruth Tuttle, a successful engineer, is married to kind, successful Xavier, who is eager to start a family. She is unsure about pursuing that dream, as she has never gotten over the baby that she gave birth to and gave up for adoption when she was a teenager. She promised her family not to look back on this decision. However, after revealing this part of her past to Xavier, Ruth realizes that she must return home to Indiana to make peace with it. This revelation causes friction in her relationship with Xavier and her decision to return home to revisit the past will cause even more.

Most of the action takes place in Ruth's hometown and is told from two perspectives -- hers and that of a young boy who goes by the nickname Midnight. While the story is told from Ruth's and Midnight's vantage points, the voices of the secondary characters are just as clear and help transport the reader back to this particular moment in American history'.

The Midwestern factory town where Ruth grew up is going through hard times following the economic collapse and is plagued by racism, unemployment, and despair. As such, this complex novel deftly explores related social themes as Ruth seeks answers to what happened to the baby she gave birth to so many years ago. Her family attempts to discourage her, reminding her of the sacrifices they made to ensure that she could pursue an Ivy league education and enjoy her comfortable middle class life in Chicago. I found the location, story, and characters compelling. This novel is one to savor and ruminate over long after the final page is turned. I look forward to reading future novels by this author based on my introduction to her work in this outstanding debut.

Many thanks to William Morrow and the Book Club Girl Early Read program for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy courtesy of NetGalley!

This timely novel explores the challenges of growing up black that are still prevalent today. The story starts on election night in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama. Ruth Tuttle finally reveals to her husband that she was forced by her family to give up a baby for adoption when she was a teenager. She then graduated from college and began a successful career. Her husband wants children but she is not sure. She goes back to her family in a poor town in Indiana to find the truth of what happened to her child. While there she befriends a troubled white child. The novel provides heart wrenching details about the divide between black and white communities and the difficult decisions Black families face. This work is thought-provoking and highly recommended.

I will say, The Kindest Lie took me a few chapters to get into the story. Once I got past the political beginning and into the meat of the story, I was hooked. I loved learning about Ruth and her family. The way her community was raised and the reasons why families made the choices they did. The choices that were made for us when we are younger don't always make sense years later, as Ruth found out. When she was seventeen, Ruth found out she was pregnant and the decision was made that she would give up the baby. Years later, when her husband wants to start talking about a family, Ruth comes clean. She want to find her baby from years ago. Little does she know all the secrets she will uncover.
Nancy Johnson writes a very clever book. Like I said earlier, it did take me a while to get into the story. But once I found my grove, I loved the story. Johnson does bounce from past to current time but the chapters are easy to follow. I will be recommending this book to others and would be interested to see what other works Nancy Johnson writes. Special thanks to NetGalley, Nancy Johnson, and William Morrow and Custom House for the Advanced digital Copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
#TheKindestLie #NetGalley

I love the themes of this book about complicated family relationships, sacrifice, and the heavier issues of race and class in America. The story revolves around three extended families living in rural Ganton, Indiana. The main character, Ruth has finally opened up to her husband and best friend about the child she birthed and then gave up when she was a senior in high school. She is now living in Chicago, but goes home to Ganton to try and find answers and make peace with her past. Did she make the right mistake? Was she being selfish or did this choice enable her to have a chance at a better life? Could her husband ever forgive her for not telling him about the baby? Could she ever forgive herself? Ruth has been gone almost 11 years with the exception of her wedding that was almost 4 years ago. She ends up staying with her mother and older brother and sleeping in her childhood bed, which brings back a lot of memories. She becomes friends with a sweet, but somewhat lost 11 year old white boy named Midnight, as she searches for her own son.. Midnight is a very sympathetic character and provides readers with perspectives of how both poor white children and black children have to compete for resources and struggle to figure out their place in the world. Through Midnight and his black friend, Corey, we see how the different races are treated and how quickly violence can escalate even to young children. It is heartbreaking knowing that black mothers have to have "the talk" with their black sons about how they have to interact with the police and other persons in charge to make sure they stay alive. "Always be polite. Don't talk back. Keep your hands out of your pockets. make sure they're visible.." The book reminds us that gangs are all too eager to provide family when children feel like they have none. There are several strong female characters in this book that remind us that mothers have to make sacrifices to try and do what is best for their child/ren There is much more I would add, but I don't want to spoil the ending. When you finish the book you can truly appreciate one of my favorite lines. "Perfect mothers didn't exist, only perfectly flawed one (did)." Thank you to #netgalley and Book Club Girl Early Reads for an advanced copy of this book. I look forward to helping promote this important debut novel when it hits the shelves in February.

The Kindest Lie is set in 2008 when Obama won the election. We follow Ruth who goes back to her childhood home, after telling her husband she had a baby as a teenager, for the truth of what happened in the past. The reader learns how the kindest lies told in the past and present, have affected not only Ruth, but her family and friendships, new and old. The author does a wonderful job showing how a kindest lie can be harmful. #NetGalley #TheKindestLie

Set in 2008, The Kindest Lie is a look at the racial, societal, and motherhood issues swirling in America. While well written and engaging, I wish it had gone deeper into the thoughts, actions, and personalities of the main characters. Thought provoking read with plenty to discuss and mull over.