The Mistake

Synopsis

<p><b><i>We all have secrets . . . </i></b></p> <p>Jodie Garrow is a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks when she falls pregnant. Scared, alone and desperate to make something of her life, she adopts out the baby illegally – and tells nobody.</p> <p>Twenty-five years on, Jodie has built a new life and a new family. But when a chance meeting brings the adoption to the notice of the authorities, Jodie becomes caught in a nationwide police investigation, and the centre of a media witch hunt.</p> <p>What happened to Jodie's baby? And where is she now? The fallout from Jodie's past puts her whole family under the microscope, and her husband and daughter must re-examine everything they believed to be true.</p> <p><b>Potent, provocative and compulsively readable, <i>The Mistake</i> is the story of a mother and the media's powerful role in shaping our opinions. With astonishing insight, it cuts to the heart of what makes a family, and asks us whether we can ever truly know another person.</b></p> <p>'The kind of novel that will have you second-guessing your own reactions and skilfully exposes the troubling expectations we resort to in the absence of hard evidence.' <i>The Age</i></p> <p>'Tense and involving ... credible and accomplished.' <i>The Australian</i></p> <p>'A moving book that relentlessly hits the mark.' <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i></p> <p><b>Praise for Wendy James's other books</b><br /><br />'James's sure hands leads us through sometimes harrowing, sometimes redemptive moments in her beautifully rounded characters lives.' <i>Who Weekly</i></p> <p>'A penetrating picture of our life and times . . . a knockout.' <i>Canberra</i><i> Times</i></p> <p>'Cunning psychological portraits and clean prose make for an absorbing domestic thriller.' <i>The Age</i></p>