The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

I read this book recently for my book club. I hadn’t heard of it or Liane Moriarty before, and when my friend Meredith sent out the group text informing us that this was our next selection, I shuddered due to the title. I shuddered even more when I saw the disintegrating rose petal on the cover.  Something about the title and the cover just threw me off from the get-go. I procrastinated buying and reading the book, and was formulating my get-out-of-book-club excuse when my library request came through in the nick of time. With only three days to read it before the next meeting, I went to work.

So, while I began the book trepidatiously, once I actually started it I jumped right in and devoured it in those three days. What a lovely surprise was waiting for me between the off-titled/pictured cover! The intertwined world of several Sydney families harboring secrets and tragedies unfolded in a delightful way. Sure that the "secret" would be infidelity, I was surprised to find that it was a different (though much darker) secret. Infidelity is still a theme in the novel though.

Once the secret(s) are revealed, the questions arise. Can life ever return back to normal? Are we better off not knowing? Moriarty used the toppling of the Berlin Wall as a metaphor in the novel, and at the end suggested that some people would have preferred the Wall to stay up, their lives not great but at least predictable. Some of the characters in this novel most certainly would have preferred the secrets to stay buried, as once the truth came out there was no way to erase it and go on about their daily lives in the same easy-going way.

The idea that someone you know, trust, love, lived with for 15 years and have three kids with could be harboring dark secret is fundamentally disturbing. It’s also easy to pass off as only belonging in the realm of fiction but the reality is this stuff happens in real life all the time. This might be classified as contemporary fiction but in some ways it’s a horror novel!

The only part of the book I wasn’t thrilled about was the ending, as circumstances took a predictable ‘karma-is-gonna-getcha’ turn.  But overall (cover excluded) I thought this was a great read and very well written, which brings me to the book club discussion. Several other members echoed my thoughts about the title, but when we asked ourselves “What would you call it?” no one could satisfactorily answer.

I was left wondering what would be a better title for this book? Since I have never had to come up with a book title before, I asked author Catherine McKenzie what she would have called it. She suggested simply Secret in accordance with her preference for one word titles. I thought even just The Secret would have been better but I guess that’s already been taken. It's probably a good thing I don’t have to name books for a living.

So in this case the case the old adage is true—never judge a book by its cover! I've learned my lesson.   

(Final note—the UK cover of this novel is GORGEOUS!! They must know what they’re doing over there.)