The Conversation: authors Linden MacIntyre and Kyo Maclear on relationships, family and deception

The place: The Rooster Coffee House on Broadview | The people: authors Linden MacIntyre and Kyo Maclear | The subject: relationships, families and other reasons to deceive Photography by Daniel Ehrenworth

True love is hard to find; truthful love, even harder. Whether between partners, family members or friends, all relationships rest on a few sneaky little fictions. For writers, this endless cycle of deceit is the stuff that award-winning books are made of. Linden MacIntyre won the Giller Prize in 2009 for The Bishop’s Man, about a priest trying to cover up the sins of his church. His new novel, with its Google-friendly title Why Men Lie, is about an older woman who has learned to be cautious, at least until she meets a man who seems too good to be true. (Spoiler alert: he is.) Kyo Maclear has written a lot about complex family dynamics. She used her experiences growing up as the only daughter of a mixed-race couple as fodder for Spork, her award-winning children’s book, as well as for her first novel, The Letter Opener. Her new novel, Stray Love, is about a man trying to forgive his adoptive father for failing to be entirely honest about his real parents. We bought these two tale spinners coffee and let them get to the bottom of things.