Would you have married your spouse if you knew he held a secret from his teens that paints an entirely different picture of the man you have known, loved, raised three children with and lived with for over 15 years?

Do we ever REALLY know someone? How well is it really possible to know our spouses, and ultimately ourselves?

When someone hurts you or betrays you, what does “forgiving” them mean when you have so much invested in the relationship?

What keeps families together and what has the potential of tearing them apart?

Friends, I was compiling a summer reading post for next month, but after finishing this book last week– it deserves it’s own post.

Liane Moriarty’s “The Husband’s Secret” is a thought provoking, emotional and masterfully crafted book on the complexities of relationships, secrets, forgiveness, trust and love.

“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.”

Initially I  thought this would be a quick, “beach-read”/ “chick-lit” type book.  Believe me when I tell you it is so much more and a real PAGE-TURNER. I read it in 30 hours. Could not put it down.  Even more significant — the questions raised in this book have stayed with me days after finishing it.

We all “think” we know how we would react in certain situations.  Moriarty raises a lot of moral and ethical questions of what constitutes “the right thing”.  This book challenges those thoughts as life is really not so black/white.  Self-preservation and protecting your family can mean so many different things.

This novel is set in Australia and follows three story lines of three women, Cecilia, Tess and  Rachel.  At first the connections between them don’t seem significant, but the “secret” held interconnects these story lines and ends up changing them all.

Life is complicated and messy – and far, far from “black/white”  “good/bad”.  The situations in the book will make you examine your thoughts on forgiveness and justice.

While this novel is also about marriages, Moritarty swerved away from the usual line  of “nobody knows what goes on behind someone’s closed doors except the people involved”….instead, she explores the possibility that even then, those involved don’t know.

Whatever you feel and whatever judgements you have about the characters at the end of the book, might very well be overturned by her brilliant, brilliant Epilogue. Showing us, once again…..that even the people we are closest to and love the most…. we really don’t ever know them 100%.

Happy Reading.
xo