From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.
It begins with the discovery of a tattered letter in the attic …
1959: Grace is a young mother with four children under four. All she ever wanted was to have a family of her own, but there are thoughts Grace cannot share with anyone in the months after childbirth. Instead she pours her deepest fears into the pages of a notebook, hiding them where she knows husband Patrick will never look. When Grace falls pregnant again, she turns to her sister, Maryanne, for help.
1996: When Beth’s father, Patrick, is diagnosed with dementia, she and her siblings make the heart-wrenching decision to put him into care. As Beth is clearing the family home, she discovers a series of notes in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker may be true. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.
Truths I Never Told You is an unputdownable, unforgettable tale of motherhood and marriage by Kelly Rimmer, bestselling author of Before I Let You Go and The Things We Cannot Say. Kelly knows how to deliver a power-packed tale and does so here with this emotionally charged story set across two time periods. Duel timelines, one in the 1990s and the other during the 1960s, and multiple viewpoints are weaved seamlessly together to produce a heart-tugging story of family secrets. The choice of these two fairly recent time periods is interesting, and as a reader in 2020, it’s a lesson in things that have and have not changed for women. There are also complex issues dealt with, including depression and ageing parents, but Rimmer handles these respectfully and with deep empathy.
I love Kelly Rimmer’s storytelling. She’s one author I read, and then immediately pass the books on to my mother. She writes heartfelt, real and often extremely raw books for and about women and she excels at them. If you are already a fan, you’ll be thrilled with Truths I Never Told You. If you’re yet to discover this marvellous author, I guarantee, you’ll devour this and then immediately be looking up her backlist.
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