Genre: Contemporary
Book Type: Physical
Author: Rosie Walsh
Narrator: Imogen Church & Theo Solomon
Pages / Length: 384 pages / 11 hours and 28 minutes
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (March 1, 2022) / Penguin Audio
Book Description:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted comes a love story wrapped in a mystery: an up-all-night page-turner with a dark secret at its core
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie.
And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.
When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .
But first, she must tell him about the other love of her life.
Thoughts: I enjoyed Charlie's search for the truth, as well as this being a contemporary book with an element of mystery to it. It made for a fast read with may reflecting passages.
Favorite Quotes:
*** Some quotes contain spoilers. ***
🐚 People seldom believe me when I tell them our desk is the most cheerful desk on the news floor; that our laughter is often a matter of irritation to our neighbors. But it makes sense, if you think about it properly. Current affairs and politics are perennially gloomy spaces to inhabit, whereas we spend our time celebrating extraordinary people. Besides, an obituarist's currency is life, not death, and my mind is always trained on the qualities of my intended portrait: the colors, the light and dark; the choppy textures. There is a sadness to it, of course, but it's gentle. (Page 29)
🐚 Keeping it didn't connect me to the unbearable losses of that time in my life. It just left me vulnerable to losing the beautiful family I had now. (Page 103)
🐚 And that second chance was beautiful; more so than I could ever have imagined. My body moved on, my heart loved again.
But there was always a negative space, a shadow on the sand. That is the way with loss: you can't undo it, no matter what you have gained. (Page 269)
🐚 "I didn't even know your name," he says, and he, too, is on the brink of tears. "I have held you every night for ten years and I didn't even know your name." (Page 316)
🐚 But of course I hadn't remembered. I couldn't remember. [...] ... because when you're that lost, your only anchors are the things people tell you. (Page 332)
🐚 My eyes well. [...] I don't know anything, other than that it's only when something's damaged beyond repair that we realize how beautiful it was. (Page 347)
🐚 In the fast-falling darkness her eyes are deep seas. Unknown oceans, but I can learn them again. They're the only ones I want to swim. (Page 363)
🐚 I invite you to think about an event in your past you'd do anything to erase.
You're bound to have one, even if you're young. And if you're good at hiding it, it'll be there on the strandlines of your own story: sand-camouflaged, unremarkable; visible only to those who know what to look for. (Page 365)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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