‘Women’s fiction’ (aka ‘domestic fiction’ or ‘chick lit’) is the genre to which we turn when we want real life stories about real people facing realistic situations, told with a tongue-in-cheek sense of the absurd moments that arise out of everyday occurrences. That is exactly why commercial fiction sells so well (it’s called ‘commercial’ for a reason!) – because it is usually a refreshingly warm and honest examination of daily life, and frequently very funny. At its best, this genre of story is very direct, offering a frank examination of the circumstances of everyday people, and providing the opportunity for intimate ‘fly-on-the-wall’ perspectives of other people’s relationships, marriages, parenting and friendships. The characters are usually highly relatable – it’s easy to imagine ourselves in their place. And there is usually a good deal of moral ambiguity, questions of right and wrong, the most prominent one being ‘what would I have done in his or her place?’
All of this in contained in Nicola Moriarty’s latest novel The Fifth Letter (HarperCollins Books Australia 2017). Four women – Joni, Deb, Eden and Trina – who have been friends since high school, catch up every year for a ‘girls only’ holiday. For a few days, they leave behind husbands, children and work, to reconnect with each other. But this year is different: they decide to each share a secret in an anonymous letter. As the revelations of each letter are disclosed, the women are rocked by the secrets each has kept from the others, when they thought they knew each other so well. And when a fifth letter is discovered – written and then hidden – that discloses sinister feelings towards someone in the close-knit group, everyone becomes worried.
This is a light-hearted and easy-to-read novel that explores schoolyard associations and how they grow into adult relationships, and female friendships and how they are shaped by the gradual addition of partners and children. It is a book about the pain of growing up, of growing away from the familiar (and from your family), and about creating a new family. It is about the small sacrifices we make every day to keep our ordered life; about the risks we are willing to take to try for something bigger, better or more exciting. Most of all it is about self-reflection of the ties that bind us, for better or for worse, and about the secrets we keep from those close to us. It’s a contemporary look at modern love and parenting, that touches on some deeper issues.