We Never Told: A Novel

by Diana Altman

Set in an era when unmarried women were shamed into relinquishing their newborns, and the Hollywood lifestyle was at its height, We Never Told is a slice of American history from a female point of view. Those relinquished babies did not disappear. Now they are grown up and searching. Now is the time of reckoning. All across America, strangers are knocking on the doors of families that welcome them or reject them. This era of the wandering adoptees is unique. It won’t happen again. We Never Told is a coming-of-age saga. Sonya is determined to unearth her glamorous mother’s secret but when she does, she discovers that her mother was hiding something worse than anyone could have imagined.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2019

About the author

Diana Altman is the author of Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the origins of the studio system (Carol Publishing, ’92) a nonfiction book still quoted in movie star biographies and books of film history. She was a guest on TV’s Entertainment Tonight. Her award-winning novel In Theda Bara’s Tent (Tapley Cove Press, 2010) was described as “sophisticated storytelling” by Library Journal and as “enthralling” by PW. Her novel We Never Told was given a 5-star review on Booklist and was compared to Wally Lamb. Kirkus said, “Altman’s writing is thoughtful and articulate...The author speaks with sophistication and style about the experiences of American women in the recent past." The editor of the literary journal Trampset, Scott Neuffer, said, “Diana Altman is a brilliantly clever novelist. Her short stories have appeared in Trampset, The Notre Dame Review, StoryQuarterly, Cumberland River Review, and The Sea Letter. Articles have appeared in the New York Times, Yankee, Boston Herald, Forbes, and elsewhere. Diana is a member of PEN, The Author’s Guild, and the Women’s National Book Association. She’s a graduate of Connecticut College and Harvard University and lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story opens with a discussion between sisters Sonya and Joan after their mother's death. They're going through her papers and find information about the baby she gave away when they were teenagers. This is the crux of the title, the secret they never told. It isn't until the very end of the book that this situation comes back full circle and is hardly the main thrust of the story as related. Usually, I'd be annoyed that such a big thing was strung out so very long but in the reading of this book, I found I didn't mind. It was so engaging a read that I often had to remind myself about the big revelation at the beginning.

Going back and being told through Sonya's eyes about the life she and her sister lived with and usually without their mother, Violet, was a very engaging story. I enjoyed the contrast between the Adlers and the Greenhouses and what both sides of the family brought to Sonya and Joan's sensibilities as they grew into adulthood. The writing is bright and engaging and it winds up that it's all the little things that add up to make it a well done whole. Sonya as the narrator was funny, infuriating, insightful, selfish and sympathetic. She was all around well done. I can't give spoilers but I did find that the parts that showed Sonya & Joan's relationship with their father and what it was like to have a father so much your mother's senior (even though my parents marriage didn't break up in divorce) and having him die when you're just into your twenties, was personally relevant to me and felt very true.

I'd read another by Diana Altman. This reminded me of The Swans of Fifth Avenue because while it's not historical fiction, it feels like it is to me as it begins and spans a part of the last century that is in my mother's memory and experience, not my own. I'm going with this being contemporary fiction as it ends in the present day (Siri is asked to do something on the last page), however. Oh, the genre conundrums!

Many thanks to the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off very slow for me and I almost put it down. Luckily I stayed with it because it did pick up. This was an interesting look at family dynamics and sister relationships. Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and found most of them to be intensely unlikable. The plot slowly moved along and while I finished it, I was left feeling pretty “meh” about it. I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

[BookTrib.com]

If you were asked to keep a potential life-threatening secret, could you do it? What if it was your own mother who asked and you were only a teenager? What if the secret involved left you with more questions than answers? In Diana Altman’s We Never Told (She Writes Press), this is exactly the situation that Sonya Adler and her sister, Joan, are forced into when their mother’s dark secret is revealed.

This secret leaves teenage girls Sonya and Joan without a mother for several months. The daughters have few details on her absence so they let their imaginations lead them to their own conclusions. “The Secret” is kept because it never really occurs to them to do anything other than what their mother asks. However, secrets always have a way of coming out and when Sonya comes across the intimate details of her mother’s secret, she uncovers an entirely new version of the truth and is left with more questions than she ever thought possible. Even worse, no one seems to want to find the answers as desperately as she does so she is left to search on her own.

Diana Altman’s story unfolds with Sonya accidentally discovering the truth about the secret she has kept her whole life. This revelation triggers flashbacks to recount her life story, beginning with childhood. Narrated by Sonya, much of the book is spent insightfully revealing strange family dynamics, allowing the reader to speculate justification for the “secret.” Sonya’s mother, Violet, is a repeated focus in her story. As we watch both of these characters develop in the novel, it seems that they are much more alike than either one of them would want to admit.

The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/08/in-1950s...

[musingwithmeirys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not going to say I LOOVEEED this book, but I really truly enjoyed it! The book starts in the present when violet, Sonya’s mother, is dead and Sonya’s finds herself rumbling her past. Then the story fades into Sonya’s past and retails her journey as a girl growing up after World War II. Recalling her childhood, teenage years, and later independent woman years, Sonya is found carrying her mother’s deepest secret. In the process to revealing such secret, we learned about her Jewish family and what is like to live the big rich Hollywood lifestyle during that period of time. But once the author reveals the secret, it’s not what you can have possibly imagined.

[Rebecca Delgrosso Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so hard to decide on a rating for this book. It took me a while to get into the story, but once I did, I didn’t want to put it down. All of the family dynamics were so interesting. I really found myself drawn in by these people who weren’t always very likable but were definitely always very real. So while this book is out of my normal genre, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.

[Mary Tufts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow....character development, plot twists, unexpected moments. I started this book and became depressed over the early plot development. Then I stubbornly kept reading and got hooked. My stubbornness paid off in a last plot turn I never expected.

[CG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down.

[Eileen Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introspective and honest. This story will remind you of the dangers of secrets.

[Leslie Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed like a great premise, had interesting storytelling, but the secret was just not really that shocking.

[Fay Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished the book but about a third of the way through I kept wondering, "Why?" Didn't seem to be any point to it.