When Ann Carbine marries Larry Best in the Salt Lake temple in 1961, she's certain their marriage will last forever. Eleven years later, she learns that he's been having affairs with men. Devastated by the revelation, Ann feels betrayed and abandoned. She still loves Larry and wants to save their marriage.

However, powerful emotions pull Larry away from his family, just as AIDS is beginning its relentless march through the gay community. As a single parent, Ann is faced with four grieving children who don't want to leave their father and their home in Utah.

But Ann needs to start a new life in a new place. In the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, she at last makes peace with the past.

"IN THE MIRROR by Ann Carbine Best is a frank and engaging memoir, one in which the author, with a gift for understatement and quiet but powerful prose, recalls her dramatic life with an in-your-face honesty that gut-punches the reader." ~Steve Walker, author The Power of Tolkien's Prose and Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna.

"This skillfully written page -turner, first novel of award-winning poet and story writer Ann Carbine Best, is a courageous memoir of loss and pain that affirms our ability to recover, survive, and move on." ~Maureen Derrick Keeler, Professor of English & Literature.

"Ann Best portrays herself, and those who share her journey, with unflinching honesty. That is no easy task for the memoirist. Her paucity of description and her generous use of dialogue kept the story moving. Ultimately, I was left awed by the resiliency of the spirit of this author. In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets is a must-read for anyone who thinks they cannot handle what life offers." ~Diane Marcou, author The Smuggler's Ghost

"This moving, inspiring, and candid memoir is a simply told yet eloquent story of a woman whose mortal journey takes her through a series of life-shattering crises, each of which could break any one of us." ~Richard H. Cracroft, author, editor and Chair, BYU English Department

When Ann Carbine marries Larry Best in the Salt Lake temple in 1961, she's certain their marriage will last forever. Eleven years later, she learns that he's been having affairs with men. Devastated by the revelation, Ann feels betrayed and abandoned. She still loves Larry and wants to save their marriage.

However, powerful emotions pull Larry away from his family, just as AIDS is beginning its relentless march through the gay community. As a single parent, Ann is faced with four grieving children who don't want to leave their father and their home in Utah.

But Ann needs to start a new life in a new place. In the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, she at last makes peace with the past.

"IN THE MIRROR by Ann Carbine Best is a frank and engaging memoir, one in which the author, with a gift for understatement and quiet but powerful prose, recalls her dramatic life with an in-your-face honesty that gut-punches the reader." ~Steve Walker, author The Power of Tolkien's Prose and Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna.

"This skillfully written page -turner, first novel of award-winning poet and story writer Ann Carbine Best, is a courageous memoir of loss and pain that affirms our ability to recover, survive, and move on." ~Maureen Derrick Keeler, Professor of English & Literature.

"Ann Best portrays herself, and those who share her journey, with unflinching honesty. That is no easy task for the memoirist. Her paucity of description and her generous use of dialogue kept the story moving. Ultimately, I was left awed by the resiliency of the spirit of this author. In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets is a must-read for anyone who thinks they cannot handle what life offers." ~Diane Marcou, author The Smuggler's Ghost

"This moving, inspiring, and candid memoir is a simply told yet eloquent story of a woman whose mortal journey takes her through a series of life-shattering crises, each of which could break any one of us." ~Richard H. Cracroft, author, editor and Chair, BYU English Department

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