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By Darcel Rockett / Chicago Tribune
March 6, 2021
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Author Nancy Johnson and her new novel The Kindest Lie in her Chicago home, Feb. 17, 2021. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Debut author Nancy Johnson wanted to tell human interest stories when she was a broadcast news journalist years ago, but she recalls there were too few opportunities to do that.
Now, the Chicago native has all the opportunity she can handle with her first book, “The Kindest Lie.” The novel tells the story of Ruth Tuttle, a Black engineer living in Bronzeville with her husband. The couple are celebrating the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama when a truth from Ruth’s youth is revealed: Before she went off to get an Ivy League education, she had a child that she gave up for adoption. The secret sets Tuttle on the path home to fictional town Ganton, Indiana, to track down the child’s whereabouts. During her search for answers, Tuttle takes readers on her journey, a journey that brings a