The Secrets We Left Behind

June 1, 2015

Wright's heroine has built a solid life with her husband, Duncan, and her grown daughter, Hannah. However, just as she starts to see that Hannah is sinking into postpartum depression, she receives a phone call from a man in her past. Scott is dying of cancer, and he wants to make amends for his former deeds. He also asks her to help. Wright (The Things We Never Said) effectively uses flashbacks to weave the two strands of the story. In 1976, the young protagonist lives in a squat with Scott and Eve, and one night, things go horribly wrong. Aware that she needs to explain her actions, she doesn't want to lose her tidy life. VERDICT This quiet, mournful book explores the ties between mothers and children and how the past reverberates into the present. Scott and Eve's characters never develop fully, but the heroine is a strong, sympathetic character. Wright competently shows the life her protagonist could lose by revealing the one she lived. Readers who relish literary novels with occasional twists will be absorbed by this story.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015
When a dedicated wife and mother is contacted by a voice she recognizes from long ago, she is forced to make a difficult choice. Before the discomfiting phone call, she'd been completely content. She has a loving husband, a job that allows her to make a difference, and her beloved daughter has just given birth to her first grandchild. Decades earlier, though, things hadn't been so certain. Rescued from the streets of London by a couple who taught her about family and loyalty, she was forced by tragedy to do something for which she has sought neither forgiveness nor understanding, locking the secret safely behind her. Now, this man who knows her story has threatened to reveal her past to those who matter most. In dual narratives alternating between past and present, the truth emerges graduallythe death of her own mother, her years of being lost, and the mistake that both grounded her and gave her life. Equal parts mystery and philosophical exploration, Wright's second novel challenges readers with difficult questions about love and morality.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)