The beginning of this book introduces three characters who seem ordinary people, living everyday lives, facing challenges which we or our family/friends/neighbours are facing every day. What is there about them that could possibly be of interest to me? But Deborah Moggach draws me into their stories until I read late into the night.

The Prologue is set in Africa, the plot revolves around Africa though not always in an obvious way. Don’t read the ‘Dear Reader’ letter from Moggach at the front of the book, save it until you’ve finished reading. That way, you will turn the page, drawn into the story of each woman – Lorrie in the USA, Jing and her husband in China, Petra in London – wondering how they can possibly be connected. Their situations are universal and Moggach demonstrates how globally connected we are these days, globally similar despite our assumptions and generalizations about things we know nothing about. But at the end of the day, it is a book about those universal things: love and lies.

This is a thoughtful book, with dramatic settings. I can certainly see it as a film.

Click here to read about Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things, later turned into the hit film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

If you like this, try:-
‘All My Puny Sorrows’ by Miriam Toews
‘Angel’ by Elizabeth Taylor
‘The Lie’ by CL Taylor

‘Something to Hide’ by Deborah Moggach [UK: Vintage] Buy now

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