Michel’s follow-up to Aftermath of Dreaming (2006) is the tale of two childhood best friends who fled their Louisiana roots for Los Angeles. Fiona is a moderately successful, married actress who has just learned she is expecting a child. Patricia is the one with the superstar career: as the host of a sports reality show, she is a high-profile celebrity, as is her new husband, Zane, a dashing but shallow movie star. Fiona feels a disconnect with Patricia after Patricia’s impulsive marriage to Zane in Las Vegas, and it’s further emphasized by her mixed feelings upon learning the sex of her baby, feelings she feels she can’t share with Patricia. When Patricia commits a startling betrayal and reveals a secret the two have been keeping since their teens, Fiona realizes their longtime friendship is at a crossroads and may not survive. Michel is deeply attuned to the subtleties in women’s friendships, the little nuances that indicate a slight or an attempt at making up for one, and she pays tribute to them with this layered, fluid novel. --Kristine Huntley
Review
“The Safety of Secrets is a funny, keenly observed, deeply moving story of coming of age too soon. DeLauné Michel’s elegantly structured novel jumps back and forth between an imperfect childhood in Louisiana, and a complicated adulthood in Los Angeles. .” (Warren Leight, Tony-award winning playwright of Side Man )
“a beautifully written book that takes you into the mind of a woman attempting the impossible; trying to make marriage, motherhood, friendship and a career as an actress all work in the gladiatorial ring of Los Angeles. DeLauné Michel writes with the precision and insight of an x-ray.” (Merrill Markoe, New York Times best-selling author )
“DeLauné Michel has written a terrifically funny book with a very tender heart. It manages to be wonderfully confessional and psychologically mysterious. The Safety of Secrets is the perfect curl-up-on-the-couch-and-read-all-day-long kind of book. It stays with you.” (Jill A. Davis, Author of Ask Again Later & Girls' Poker Night )
Funny and touching, this is a tale of childhood--and how it never ends. (Cathleen Schine, New York Times bestselling author of THE NEW YORKERS )
“At once funny, moving, and richly evocative of contemporary Los Angeles, The Safety of Secrets more than confirms its promise.” (Peter Biskind, best-selling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood )
Written with tremendous narrative velocity, The Safety of Secrets is almost impossible to put down. (Dani Shapiro, award-winning, best-selling writer )
