The Stories We Cannot Tell

by Leslie A. Rasmussen

Overview

There can come a point in life where you'll always remember what came before and what came after.

Rachel is a thirty-year-old married Jewish woman who's wanted a baby for a long time. Katie's a thirty-two-year-old single, catholic woman who has been trying to find a man who'll stick around. We follow the women individually as they find themselves pregnant-Rachel happily, Katie, not. As they enter their second trimester, they're shocked to hear that there's something very wrong with the babies they're carrying. Rachel and Katie meet in a support group and bond as they help each other through not only the excruciating decision they need to make but through the issues that come with making that decision. The Stories We Cannot Tell explores friendship, loss, love, hope, and family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956851601
Publisher:	TouchPoint Press
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	326
Sales rank:	813,498
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Leslie A. Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA. She went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, as well as The Wild Thornberrys and Sweet Valley High. After leaving the business to raise her boys, she attained a master's degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Recently, she's written over twenty essays for Huffington Post, and has spoken on panels discussing empowering women in midlife. Leslie is a member of The Writers Guild of America, as well as Women In Film and the Women's Fiction Writers Association. is Leslie's debut novel, After Happily Ever After has won over sixteen awards, including an honorable mention in the prestigious Eric Hoffer Awards. In her free time, Leslie loves to read, exercise, and hang out with friends. She lives in Los Angeles and is married and has two sons.

Editorial Reviews

2023-05-18
Rasmussen’s novel follows the courses of two pregnancies, each marked by trepidation, heartbreak, acceptance, and joy.

For Rachel, a 30-year-old kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles, a baby can’t come fast enough. She and her husband, Brett, have been trying for years, but when Rachel finally finds herself pregnant, the news ushers in a host of concerns: When to tell her parents? How to decorate the nursery? And the worst question a pregnant woman can ask herself: What if something is wrong with the baby? With compassion and warmth, the author sheds light on the physical and emotional roller coaster a pregnant woman experiences and the ways in which a pregnancy—whether it’s planned or not—upends one’s life. Alternating chapters tell the story of Katie, a 32-year-old single woman who becomes pregnant after a chance encounter with a former classmate. Raised in a dysfunctional household, Katie has serious concerns about raising a child alone, especially after she learns that her baby has a 1 in 3 chance of being born with Down syndrome. A devout Catholic, Katie seeks support from her church even as her circumstances force her to consider an abortion. After Rachel also learns of a threat to her fetus’s health, the two women meet in a support group and form a deep bond. The novel suffers from a few strained plot turns, such as Katie’s belated attempt to uncover her ancestral history, but its true heart is the friendship between Rachel and Katie, a connection that affirms the importance of chosen family. The author endows her characters with an endless capacity for light banter. In a novel that concerns miscarriages, abortions, fetuses with life-threatening conditions, and families cracking under pressure, this buoyant sense of humor sometimes feels jarring, but it does brighten up the mood, as in a tender scene between Rachel and Brett: “I think you should leave me and find someone who can give you a baby. What about Martha from the dry cleaner?” Brett responds, “You will never get rid of me; I love you too much….Besides, if things didn’t work out with Martha, I’d have to find another dry cleaner.”

A compassionate, nonjudgmental look at the difficult decisions that pregnant women face every day.

Kirkus Reviews