The Secrets We Left Behind: A Novel

On the southern coast of England, old secrets threaten a happy life in this “riveting and vivid novel about a woman who is forced to examine her past” (Ann Weisgarber, author of The Promise and The Personal History of Rachel DuPree). She has built a good life with a husband who adores her, a daughter she is fiercely proud of, and a home filled with warmth and love. But things were not always so good for her—and she has not always been so good. Then one evening she answers the phone. On the other end is a voice from long ago. A man from a dark memory that she has tried so hard to hide. He knows who she really is and what she has done. Now he’s dying, and gives her an ultimatum: either she tells the truth, or he will. Now, she must revisit that long hot summer of 1976, in a house by the sea on the southern coast of England, where her story and her secret began—and where the truth will be revealed. Told in dual narratives separated by the years, this follow-up to The Things We Never Said is a compelling, immersive, and thoroughly surprising story that “challenges readers with difficult questions about love and morality” (Booklist).