If Only I Could Tell You
A hopeful, heartbreaking story of family secrets
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4.2 • 524 Ratings
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- £0.99
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
A TWIST THAT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART . . . AN ENDING THAT WILL PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN.
'I loved it' Jojo Moyes
'Compelling and moving . . . it made me cry' Marian Keyes
*****
Audrey's family has fallen apart. Her two grown-up daughters, Jess and Lily, are estranged, and her two teenage granddaughters have never been allowed to meet. A secret that echoes back thirty years has splintered the family in two, but is also the one thing keeping them connected.
As tensions reach breaking point, the irrevocable choice that one of them made all those years ago is about to surface. After years of secrets and silence, how can one broken family find their way back to each other?
*****
Praise for If Only I Could Tell You:
'A must-read. An absorbing tale of long-buried family secrets, grief and guilt with a midpoint twist that changes everything' - SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE
'Resolutely heartbreaking...in a plot galvanised by guilt...quieter observations become just as unravelling' - GUARDIAN
'A tender portrait of family lives, losses and secrets' Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go
'Tense, moving and tender' - SUN ON SUNDAY
'Tender, heartbreaking and utterly beautiful' - PSYCHOLOGIES
'Utterly compelling and completely heart-breaking. I couldn't put it down' Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things
'A powerful novel about grief, guilt and...secrets' - SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Emotionally engaging, clever & wonderfully satisfying' Kate Mosse, author of The Burning Chambers
'A tender and heartbreaking second novel' - DAILY MAIL
'If Only I Could Tell You breaks your heart, but with an incredible skill and elegance... I loved it to bits' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
'Life-affirming' - RED
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beckerman (The Dead Wife's Handbook) does an excellent job of illustrating the corrosive power of secrets in this achingly real tale of two sisters and the mother who hopes to mend their tattered relationship. Lily's life looks perfect a high-powered marketing job, a beautiful daughter and loving husband through the eyes of her long-estranged younger sister, Jess, a single and struggling mother to a teenage daughter, and a senior location manager for a TV show in London. Their mother, Audrey, is dying of cancer and is determined that her daughters will reconcile before she passes away. Jess's intense anger toward her sister is a mystery to both Lily and Audrey, and Beckerman teases out both intriguing details and red herrings before letting readers in on the secret. The author combines authentically imperfect characters and a well-paced, plausible plot. Jodi Picoult's fans will find much to love in this often heartbreaking story.
Customer Reviews
Emotional.
I’ve read many, many books in my life. This made me cry. Actual tears running down my cheeks. So well written.
Unrealistic and predictable
The story was painfully slow to get into, characters lacked any real connection to the reader. Some bits were emotional but purely because of the subject they were dealing with. The plot was beyond unrealistic, as the ‘big twist’ as to why the sisters didn’t speak was a bit of a joke and in real life would’ve easily been dealt with
Predictable
Plot was predictable and slow, and the characters lacked depth. Perhaps would be liked more by fans of slow building stories where not a lot happens, but didn’t capture me in any way.