Liane Moriarty - Truly Madly Guilty

 Truly Madly Guilty

Novel by Liane Moriarty (2016)

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The Author : Liane Moriarty is an Australian author, she published successfull novels like Big Little Lies.

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The Pitch : Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, busy life : they have two little girls (Holly and Ruby), Sam has just started a new dream job, and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for an important audition.
But everything change after they accepted a last minute invitation to a barbecue with the neighbors of Erika, Clementine's oldest friend. What on earth happened during this barbecue ?

[***spoiler***]

First reveal : Right before going to the BBQ, Erica and her husband asked Clementine to be a donor for them to have a baby. And then at the BBQ Erica overheard Clementine tell Sam the idea of donating her eggs to Erica was repulsive to her.
Second reveal : Ruby, the little girl of Clementine nearly drowned after falling in the fountain. Erica and her husband resuscitated her and she's helicoptered to the hospital.
Last reveal : it's Holly who pushed her little sister in the fountain...
[end spoiler]

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My view : it could appear quite frustating because of the slow pace of the story : it takes so long to learn what happened at the BBQ ! But that's not the big point of this book. The whole point has to do with the characters and the compexity of the relations between them, their damage, their motivations, the way the BBQ affected them, how they all feel guilty, for different reasons, about what happened. I enjoyed reading this book.