Family Secrets Break ‘A Thread So Fine’

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Family bonds may seem unbreakable, but sometimes the ties that bind us become incredibly tenuous. Family secrets and hidden histories can drive even the closest of siblings apart, which is what happens to Irish twin sisters Shannon and Eliza Malone in author Susan Welch’s debut novel, 'A Thread So Fine.' 

The St. Paul, Minn.-based sisters grow up fiercely loyal to each other, yet with different dreams for their futures—dreams derailed by unexpected tragedies that keep them apart for decades. In 1946, the Malone sisters are on the cusp of womanhood when tragedy strikes in the form of a tuberculosis diagnosis and an unexpected pregnancy. In the optimistic post-war years, the White Plague still landed thousands of sick patients in sanatoriums, where they were isolated from society for an average of a year’s time, while having a baby out of wedlock (especially in a conservative Roman Catholic family) was a severely shameful secret that countless women hid from family and friends. 

With one sister isolated in her sick bed and the other fleeing to the East Coast, the ensuing narrative follows both women over the next three decades as they struggle to find a way back to one another. Welch, who grew up in Minnesota and Wisconsin, wrote A Thread So Fine after learning of her own adoption as an adult. She began the book by imagining the choices her own unwed mother was forced to make in a more socially restrictive time. 

Susan Welch will discuss A Thread So Fine at Boswell Book Co. on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m.