A Secret Kept

By: Tatiana de Rosnay

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

This stunning novel from Tatiana de Rosnay, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Sarah's Key, plumbs the depths of complex family relationships and the power of a past secret to change everything in the present.

A Secret Kept is now a major motion picture starring Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Laurent Lafitte (The Crimson Rivers), and Audrey Dana (Roman de Gare)!

It all began with a simple seaside vacation, a brother and sister recapturing their childhood. Antoine Rey thought he had the perfect surprise for his sister Mélanie's birthday: a weekend by the sea at Noirmoutier Island, where the pair spent many happy childhood summers playing on the beach. It had been too long, Antoine thought, since they'd returned to the island—over thirty years, since their mother died and the family holidays ceased. But the island's haunting beauty triggers more than happy memories; it reminds Mélanie of something unexpected and deeply disturbing about their last island summer. When, on the drive home to Paris, she finally summons the courage to reveal what she knows to Antoine, her emotions overcome her and she loses control of the car.

Recovering from the accident in a nearby hospital, Mélanie tries to recall what caused her to crash. Antoine encounters an unexpected ally: sexy, streetwise Angèle, a mortician who will teach him new meanings for the words life, love and death. Suddenly, however, the past comes swinging back at both siblings, burdened with a dark truth about their mother, Clarisse.

Trapped in the wake of a shocking family secret shrouded by taboo, Antoine must confront his past and also his troubled relationships with his own children. How well does he really know his mother, his children, even himself? Suddenly fragile on all fronts as a son, a husband, a brother and a father, Antoine Rey will learn the truth about his family and himself the hard way.

By turns thrilling, seductive and destructive, with a lingering effect that is bittersweet and redeeming, A Secret Kept is the story of a modern family, the invisible ties that hold it together, and the impact it has throughout life.

©2010 Tatiana de Rosnay (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“The story of an emotionally distant family as it struggles to come to grips with changing dynamics and the mysterious death of a young mother many years ago[...] De Rosnay's writing is eloquent and beautiful, and her characterizations are both honest and dead-on[...]” —Kirkus

“A Secret Kept is a beautiful and haunting exploration of wanting - and not wanting - to understand one's past, of learning to see parents as individuals, whether the parents in question are our own or ourselves.” —Erica Bauermeister, bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients

“In A Secret Kept, Tatiana de Rosnay takes us on a journey to that haunted place where the past seeps into the present, where memory appears and disappears, and where healing seems always out of reach. With her lyrical prose and her gift for creating deeply sympathetic characters, de Rosnay has given us a hopeful story, as addictive as it is moving.” —Diane Chamberlain, New York Times bestselling author of Summer's Child

The Secret Kept

I had read Sarah's Key and looked forward to listening to Tatiana de Rosnay's next book, The Secret Kept.
I was very disappointed. It was slow, drawn-out and not very exciting. Simon Vance I have enjoyed listening to in the past, but this book is french not english. It needed someone with a french accent. I would not recommend this to anyone.

Honestly???

How this book even was published is shocking. Unbelievably BAD!!!!!
Bummed I actually listened until the end!
Waste. Of. Time.

Even Simon Vance can't save this book

What would have made A Secret Kept better?

I've been listening for over an hour and still can't get into it. I don't have any feeling for the characters, or a desire to see what happens to them.

Has A Secret Kept turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I look at each book individually.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Simon Vance is amazing at every book, but he couldn't save a bad story.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A Secret Kept?

I'm still listening as I write this, and the story still hasn't come to any theme. I still have no idea what it's about, and why I should care.

Skip it!

Not even the incredible voice of Simon Vance can save this horrible book. Bad plot, with major events not meaning much of anything in the end. Bad writing. Horrible characters. Not only do you not care about "the hero,"you don't even like him. Save your credits. Read The Little Stranger instead - a much better use of Simon Vance's voice.

It wasn't the most riveting story

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Its depressingly sad and doesn't really go anywhere. But, its not written badly, so if you want to just listen to a sad mans story, told by a guy with an accent this is the book for you.

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His lovely accent, and perfect pronunciation of all the french names and places, that for an american like me would have been impossible to pronounce.