The Interruption of Everything

Nov 17, 2025 1:55 AM

Author:Terry McMillan

At forty-four, Marilyn Grimes is facing up to the menopause (something is DEFINITELY up with her hormones), bored to tears by her responsible but unsexy husband Leon, and feeling the strain of having raised three children who may be great kids but who leave her feeling anxious all the time. Her mother-in-law, Arthurine, has moved in, as has Arthurine's beloved elderly dog, Snuffy. Meantime the needs of her own extended family (particularly her crack-head foster sister) are escalating like mad. No wonder Marilyn is feeling tired and hormonal. But everything is interrupted when Marilyn finds out she's not menopausal . . . but pregnant.

Reviews

Wise, witty and entirely honest, McMillan is one of the best American women's writers around

—— Marie Claire

Jean Plaidy doesn't just write the history, she makes it come alive.

—— Julia Moffat, RNA

Miss Plaidy does full justice to the trials of Henry II's last years.The demands of the vast Angevin Empire, provide strong dramatic material which she handles with her usual skill.

—— Sunday Times

Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama

—— New York Times

Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting

—— Observer

It is hard to better Jean Plaidy when she is in form...both elegant and exciting as she steers a stylish path through the feuding Plantagenets.

—— Daily Mirror

Outstanding

—— Vanity Fair

Jean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity

—— Guardian

Seven Lies...has a way of enlarging the spirit and refreshing the mind far more comprehensively than many books with twice its 200 pages

—— James Buchan , Guardian

[T]his seems to be an artful evocation of the effect of totalitarianism on the individual. But if this sounds drably psychological, I am doing the novel a disservice: it is short, intense, powerful and superbly crafted

—— Chris Power , The Times

Intricately plotted and structured, its prose both elegant and poised, Seven Lies could be read as a fable about the political and spiritual corruption endemic in a totalitarian state. It is, however, very much concerned with the human cost of deception and betrayal

—— Tim Parks , Sunday Times

A brilliant and darkly funny tale of politics and paranoia

—— Christina Patterson , Independent

A must-read for empty nesters ... this is Trollope at her most poignant

—— Guernsey Now

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