Anna K.: A Novel

The lives and loves of three sisters, Anna, Kathleen and Kitty intertwine during the fateful summer of 2001. Pressed to help a friend in need, Anna, the oldest sister, for a fee paid by her brother-in-law, Doug, promises to help reconcile his failing marriage to her sister, Kathleen. But Anna has problems, too. She's trapped in a loveless marriage with Alex Karin, a wealthy and politically ambitious engineer and industrialist. While helping repair her sister's fractured marriage, Anna meets a handsome Marine officer, Major Varnay, falls in love and begins a tempestuous affair. She knows the affair is pure folly, destructive and poisonous but she can't bring herself to stop it, either. Then, the tragic events of 9/11 intervene and she realizes she must make an irrevocable choice between her family and her lover. Kitty, the youngest of the three sisters, once in love with Major Varnay, turns to Albert Mason, a young lawyer. Albert, whose past quests for spiritual enlightenment have left him neither enlightened nor satisfied finds salvation not in asceticism but in generosity and kindness. In the end, it is his kindness and gentility that win Kitty's heart. Doug, Kathleen's unfaithful husband, never loses his fascination with Kari, the young woman who almost destroyed his marriage. He faces enormous problems at work where corporate politics and infighting threaten to destroy his career. The search for love, forgiveness, understanding and happiness leads everyone down paths and into places far removed from the bland security of their past. National politics, corporate politics, and the problems, petty and profound, of love in the new millennium all conspire to affect the lives of Anna, her two sisters and their families in ways never anticipated.