The Choice
An Emotional and Thought-provoking Story About Love and Guilt
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Jodi Picoult and If Only I Could Tell You, Penny Hancock's The Choice is an engrossing, thought-provoking novel about family secrets and the way that even the smallest decisions can sometimes have far-reaching consequences.
‘Emotional and thought-provoking’ – Jenny Quintana, author of The Hiding Place
An estranged daughter.
Renee Gulliver appears to have it all: a beautiful house overlooking a scenic estuary on England’s East Coast, a successful career as a relationship therapist, three grown-up children, and a beloved grandson, Xavier.
A missing grandson.
But then Xavier vanishes after Renee fails to pick him up from school, and the repercussions are manifold.
A mother faced with an impossible choice.
Renee is wracked with remorse; the local community question her priorities, clients abandon her; and, as long-held grievances surface, her daughter Mia offers her a heartbreaking ultimatum.
Amid recriminations, misunderstandings and lies, can Renee find a way to reunite her family?
‘A real tour de force’ – Kate Rhodes, author of the Locked-Island mysteries
‘Gut-wrenching’ – Woman's Own
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Family secrets spring to the surface after a woman neglects to pick up her grandson from school in this poignant outing from Hancock (I Thought I Knew You). Though Renee Gulliver is a highly respected family therapist, her own family life is in shambles. Renee's daughter, Irena, was blamed for upending a kettle of hot tea onto her brother, George, when she was three years old, permanently disfiguring him. The accident made Irena an outsider in her own family, and now, decades later, she hasn't returned home for six years, not even to visit her father after he had a debilitating stroke. When Renee forgets to collect her six-year-old grandson, Xavier—son of her second daughter, Mia—from school one afternoon, he goes missing. She's left to grapple with her fear that something terrible has befallen the boy and her guilt over disappointing Mia. After word of Renee's mistake spreads and she's ostracized by clients and neighbors alike, she discovers negatives of photographs her husband took on the day of George's accident that reframe the incident and absolve Irena. Hancock beautifully explores the destructive power of entrenched narratives without sacrificing page-turning momentum. Readers will be hard-pressed to put this down.
