The Choice

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. Agent: Jane Gregory, David Higham Assoc. (Dec.)