THE GREAT BOOK GURU: Ann Dipietro

A Family’s secrets

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Dear Great Book Guru,

With the upcoming holidays, I will have lots of time to get into a good novel.  Do you have a suggestion - I’m thinking something with an international flavor.  

 Hopeful Holiday Reader

Dear Hopeful Holiday Reader,

I just read an interesting book suggested by a GBG follower, “The Margot Affair,” by Sanae Lemoine. Set in present-day Paris, the novel tells the story of a family and the secrets that can very well destroy it. 

Margot is the daughter of a famous actress and an influential politician with presidential ambitions and … another family. Margot has always known that her father, who is very involved in her life, has a wife and children and that she is not to share this information with anyone. 

The summer of her 17th birthday she is befriended by an attractive journalist and his wife who become very important to her — dinners, concerts, overnight visits. Soon she tells them her secret and a story appears in the newspaper much to her parents’ horror. No one seems to know where the information came from, but political and theatrical worlds are a clamor with speculation. The story then takes a surprising twist that will shock the reader. Throughout the novel we see this adolescent’s need for parental love and approval and the means she uses to attain them. Highly recommended!

Would you like to ask the Great Book Guru for a book suggestion? Contact her at annmdipietro@gmail.com.