Scheier’s moth­er Judith was a sin­gle moth­er whose devo­tion crossed the line into obses­sion, and — when in the grips of the men­tal ill­ness that plagued every day of her life — a vio­lent and abu­sive liar whose hold on real­i­ty was shaky at best. On an unevent­ful after­noon when Scheier was eigh­teen, her moth­er told her two impor­tant things: one, she had been mar­ried for most of Scheier’s life to a man she’d nev­er heard of, and two, the man she’d told Scheier was her father was entire­ly fic­tion­al. She’d made him up. Those two big lies were the start, but not the end; it took dozens of small­er lies to sup­port them, and by the time she was done she had built a far­ci­cal, half-true life for the two of them.

Nev­er Sim­ple is the sto­ry of learn­ing to sur­vive — and, final­ly, try­ing to save — a com­pli­cat­ed par­ent, as feared as she is loved, and as self-destruc­tive as she is adoring.