When the Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author Alice Munro died in May at age 92, her many admirers paid tribute to the subtle construction of her short stories, which often involved the gradual unveiling of a terrible revelation.
Andrea Robin Skinner, one of Munro’s daughters, published an essay in the Toronto Star on Sunday that brought to light a long-held secret in the author’s own family: Munro’s husband, geographer Gerald Fremlin, had sexually abused Skinner starting in 1976, when she was 9. Munro learned of the abuse when Skinner wrote to her about it 16 years later, and the author ultimately decided to stay with Fremlin afterward. Fremlin wrote letters to the Munro family, admitting to the abuse in graphic detail and blaming Skinner, describing her as a “homewrecker.” Skinner’s essay in the Star was accompanied by an article by two reporters at the paper.
