October 23, 2017
CBC journalist Dakin’s memoir will surprise readers with its account of a strange childhood and youth distorted by the delusions of the man her mother trusted. After her parents divorced, Dakin’s life with her mother and brother was filled with uncertainty, secrets and fears. Her mother uprooted the family twice without explanation. The only constant in their lives was the preacher Stan Sears, a close friend of the family who became a surrogate father to Dakin and her brother. When Dakin was a young woman, her mother and Stan told her that her biological father worked for the mafia and that the family had been under the protection of a secret crime task force. Eventually, skepticism outweighed her trust, and she discovered that the story was a web of deceit woven by Stan, part of a delusional disorder in an otherwise high-functioning individual. Her mother had been a victim of that deceit, and the book follows Dakin’s efforts to confront both of them with the truth and her own journey back to reality. This is a riveting read about lives warped by misplaced trust, but Dakin also tells it as an inspiring story about the power of love to overcome anger and replace it with understanding, forgiveness, and compassion. Agent: Shaun Bradley, Transatlantic.