Between Two Eternities

It’s the early 1970s, a time before cell phones, computers, and e-mail—a time when tenderness trumps technology. Robert and Marcie Silver are young and even more in love than they were when they married nine years ago. He’s caught up in the intrigue of academic politics at New York City’s Seward College, where he teaches English literature and is hoping to earn tenure.
She, at home, is caught up in taking care of their two adorable children while she tries to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an illustrator of children’s books. There are struggles, but love and high spirits have always seen them through. Life is good, and it seems them that it can only get better.

Then Marcie begins to suffer from nausea, fatigue, headaches. At first, they think she may be pregnant again. When this proves false, she visits their internist, who identifies the condition as anemia combined with young-mother fatigue. The diagnosis appears to be correct, for the symptoms disappear before very long, and Robert and Marcie take off with the children for summer in a rented cottage at the beach. It’s an idyllic interval of brilliant sun and cool ocean breezes, of frolicking with the children by day and hand-in-hand strolls in the moonlight at night. In between, Robert labors on the book he must write to gain tenure, and Marcie works at her easel on the winsome paintings that are bound to bring her recognition as an artist. All seems to be right with their world once again. Until Marcie’s symptoms return.

Back home in Brooklyn, the doctor sends Marcie to the hospital for two long days of tests. Still puzzled, he adds another day of tests. Specialists are brought in for in-depth consultations. Then Robert is summoned to the doctor’s office, where he receives the heart-shattering news: Marcie has an inoperable brain tumor. Her life will be over in less than a year. The doctor has told Robert first so that Robert can be better prepared to help Marcie when she learns the devastating contents of his report.

But Robert cannot bear to let Marcie know the truth. There was so much he had longed to give her, things that will now and forever be impossible. The least he can do is make her last days happy and free from the knowledge that death is hovering over her. Despite the doctor’s strong objections, Robert insists that Marcie be given a false and hopeful diagnosis.

And so begins the spinning of the web of love lies. How long will Robert be able to keep Marcie entwined in it? She is a bright and curious woman. As her symptoms intensify, will she search for, and find, the truth on her own? And if she does, how will she react to the truth? And react to Robert, who has been hiding it from her? And how long will it be before Robert begins to feel strangled within his web of deception?

Between Two Eternities is the heartrending story of a young husband’s struggle to protect his wife from a terrible truth, and then of their desperate search to find together the courage to live with it. It is the haunting account of their quest for answers to life’s most painful questions. And it is the unforgettable chronicle of the breathless romance that comes to mean more than life itself—and that suddenly demands the ultimate sacrifice from both of them.

“The facts are cold; the story that unravels is warm and extremely moving... Brett handles it impeccably.”—Publishers Weekly

“This is one book that everyone should read to understand that time is short and we need to live and love life to the fullest because you just never know. Author Barbara Brett presents many issues that so many will debate after reading this heartbreaking and enlightening novel. Some portraits will change and others we know will last for eternity if just in our hearts and minds.”
--Fran Lewis, Just Reviews