Review: The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Title: The Husband’s Secret 

Author: Liane Moriarty 

Published: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam

Format: Hardcover, 416 pages

Source: Publisher/She Reads

At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read
My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died…

Imagine
that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death.
Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest
secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you
built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you
stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive.
. . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly
successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted
wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But
that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel
and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to
feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed
author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel
about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and,
ultimately, ourselves.

My thoughts:  There are very few books where I find myself completely speechless and stunned after reading – yet The Husband’s Secret totally falls into those categories. And this is why I am so glad to be part of The She Reads Book Club as this is their book club pick for September. Once again, I find that this is probably a book I might not have picked up right now and it’s definitely by an author I have not read before, much less heard of. Despite the huge mix up with me receiving a copy of this book (yes, it’s the last day of September and I only just finished reading the book due to it only arriving a week ago), I was extremely eager to read it and purposely did not read any other of the She Reads members’ reviews.

This is a book about the repercussions of secrets – both big and small. Without giving anything away – after all, the secret is a major part of this story – I will say that I was completely knocked for a loop when the main secret is revealed. 

The story is told from the perspectives of three women – Cecilia, Tess and Rachel. As we met the characters right from the beginning and we get to know them, I found myself trying to figure out what the connection was between them – what is it that puts these three women in the same story? Once the secret is revealed, I found myself re-thinking everything I had put together up to that point. 

At the beginning of the book, there is a short excerpt about Pandora and that definitely is a constant theme running through the book. What do you do when a secret is revealed that you would rather not know? How do you handle it? I also found the tie-in to the breaking down of the Berlin Wall to be quite effective. Why was that wall – either physical or metaphorical – put up in the first place and what will be the repercussions once the wall is taken down?

I have not read Liane Moriarty before, but after my experience with this book – getting up at 5:00 AM on a weekend just to read the last hundred pages!!! – I am very anxious pick up her other books.

 

The September Book Club Selection from She Reads is The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Head over to the She Reads website to read other reviews and related posts.