Something to Hide

March 1, 2016
The latest from Moggach (Heartbreak Hotel, 2015, etc.) is a hodgepodge of infidelity and other lies that spans four continents. In Pimlico, London, Petra falls in love with her best friend's husband, Jeremy. In Beijing, China, Li Jing has just learned that her absentee husband, Wang Lei, is infertile. In White Springs, Texas, Lorrie signs up to be a surrogate mother after losing her nest egg in an Internet scam. All these threads lead to Oreya, West Africa, where both Jeremy and Lei do business and where Asaf, who operates a cellphone charging station, is plugged in to everyone's secrets. Petra's complicated relationship with Bev, her former roommate, is the most vivid--Petra learns firsthand that Bev's cheerful social media posts about her happy marriage are pure fiction, and their shared history gives context to her whirlwind romance with Bev's husband. She has more of a butterfly effect on the other characters, whose outrageous predicaments unfold unevenly in alternating chapters. Lorrie can explain how she can hide her pregnant belly from her neighbors--she's a stereotypical fat American who is a victim of corn syrup as well as fraud--but it's harder to believe she'd hide such a life-altering choice from her spouse, who is away on military duty. Jing, in contrast, seems happier not knowing where her husband's money is coming from. When they finally meet in West Africa--in a poor but modernized area populated by wild dogs, wily locals, and an unscrupulous pharmaceutical company--they confront their false assumptions about each other and begin to consider the impact of their actions on the world as well as in their own lives. Kooky and diverse, each woman's secret unfolds in scintillating bits that lead to a scandalous finish.

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April 15, 2016

The choices we make in life always come back to haunt us. Secrets abound in this 18th novel by acclaimed British author Moggach (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Petra's battles with depression, loneliness, and her need for drama reach a head when the phone rings. It's her old friend Jeremy, husband of her closest friend, Bev, and he's in the States. Would she like to meet for a drink? Petra's story intertwines with that of Lorrie, who is surrogate mother of Wang Lei and his wife, Li Jing's, unborn child. Although Lorrie's battles are different from Petra's and Li Jing's, they are tied together in a web of secret lives, desires, and relationships. Li Jing doesn't really know her husband at all, and as the story unfolds we are taken to the cities and backcountry of West Africa, where the lives of four far-flung women interconnect through circumstance and choice, some not of their own making. VERDICT Readers familiar with the author will wonder when this book will hit the big screen. The sweeping landscapes of West Africa, the secrets of women whose experiences are bound together, and the suspense of their stories are consuming.--Jane Blue, Andrews P.L., NC

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
The author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2004) returns with the tale of two sexagenarian friends in love with the same man. Friends since their English schooldays, Petra and Beverly have little in common now. Divorced from her husband and with her children spread around the globe, Petra is living in London and is terribly, desperately lonely. Bev and her husband, Jeremy, have emigrated to West Africa for Jeremy's job. When Jeremy travels to London on a business trip and stops by to visit Petra, neither expects they'll fall madly in love. Jeremy resolves to leave Bev, but a twist of fate brings Petra to West Africa and throws the two women together once again. Moggach also weaves in the story of a Texas woman in financial trouble who agrees to be a surrogate for a Chinese couple, without the knowledge of her husband. Though the characters aren't always sympatheticBev's racism is especially gratingthe clever plot machinations keep the pages turning and the reader guessing right up until the very end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)