A reader’s guide
Masked: the faces we show, the lives we share
Four novels about performance, care, faith and public image, with Who am I? as their nonfiction companion. Explore the roles we inhabit and what we owe the people who meet us there.
Read the novels in order from Borrowed Silence to The Face in the Window, or start with the character whose story draws you in. The companion can be read before or after the fiction.
Who am I? — Popular Edition
An accessible exploration of the personas we bring to everyday relationships, and how our changing facets can remain honest, considerate and responsible.
Explore the book Author’s forewordBorrowed Silence
On San Francisco’s waterfront, Danny Mercer makes strangers laugh without saying a word. To his friends, he is generous and quietly dependable. To Elena, he is the man she loves—and a man whose silences she can no longer explain.
Explore the book Author’s forewordThe Weight of Being Needed
Isabel Alvarez is the nurse who always finds another minute, the daughter watching over her father, the sister making arrangements. Everyone has a version of Isabel they can depend on. She is losing sight of the woman beneath them.
Explore the book Author’s forewordThe Voice They Believed
Thomas Bell knows how to steady a room. As a minister, he offers comfort, certainty and the words people need to hear. But when a woman raises concerns about a powerful donor, reassurance becomes a dangerous habit.
Explore the book Author’s forewordThe Face in the Window
Adrian Cole knows how to be looked at. As an actor and public figure, he understands the face a moment calls for—and how convincingly a photograph can suggest that everything is in place.
Explore the book Author’s foreword
The questions behind the stories
The Masked novels explore the different selves we bring to work, family, faith and public life. Each follows a different central character and can be read independently. Together they ask how our roles shape the lives of the people who trust us.
Who am I? — Popular Edition is the accessible nonfiction companion. It develops the questions about personas, identity and integrity that underpin the fiction. Read it before the novels for context, or afterwards to reflect on the choices their characters make.
A few things to know
What is the Masked reading order?
The novels are Borrowed Silence (Book One), The Weight of Being Needed (Book Two), The Voice They Believed (Book Three), and The Face in the Window (Book Four). Each can also be read independently.
Is Who am I? a fifth novel?
No. It is the nonfiction companion exploring personas, identity and integrity. The edition in this collection is the Popular Edition; the academic edition also has its own book page.
Can I buy the Masked books directly?
Yes. Choose a book and add it to your basket. Each purchase includes separate PDF and EPUB downloads after secure checkout.
For yourself or your book club
Questions to take into the conversation
- When does adapting to another person express care, and when does it become a way of avoiding responsibility?
- What does each central character’s public role allow other people to assume?
- How do silence, helpfulness, reassurance and charm affect the people receiving them?
- What changes when a character listens to how someone else experienced the encounter?
Discuss these after reading; answers may reveal parts of the story.