To leave, after all, was not the same as being left. 
 She considered the question. Odd, she thought, how intensely you knew a person, or thought, how you did, when you were in love - soaked, drenched in love - only to discover later that perhaps you didn't know that person quite as well as you had imagined. Or weren't quite as well known as you had hoped to be. In the beginning, a lover drank every word and gesture and then tried to hold on to that intensity for as long as possible. But inevitably, if two people were together long enough, that intensity had to wane. It was the way people worked, Kathryn thought, with a need to evolve from being sick with love to making a life with someone who was also changing, altering himself, so that the couple could one day raise a child. 
 Odd, she thought, how a fact, seen one way, was one thing. And then, seen from a different angle, was something else entirely. Or perhaps not so odd. 
 "I knew about you" (view spoiler)[Muire Boland (hide spoiler)] said. "You never had to know about me." 
 To be relieved of love, she thought, was to give up a terrible burden. 
 The Pilot's Wife was so different from everything I have read this year. Recently I checked all the books which have been chosen as Oprah's Book Club selections and Anita Shreve's novel sparked my interest. I am still doubtful whether it was a 4 stars novel or not but it was certainly better than 3 stars. For the moment I find it really difficult to find the right words to describe this book because it gave you a whole different perspective of a pilot's family life. At first glance the subject seems to be very dramatic, but given the fact that the writing is so descriptive, beautiful, smooth and you feel from the beginning that something is not right about the husband and you expect a series of mind-blowing revelations regarding his life before the plane crash, you don't necessarily have this kind of impression while reading it. The truth is that it is impossible to know a person wholly. Virtually everyone has secrets, some bigger secrets that affect severely other people, others secrets that are rather inoffensive.