A review by delise
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

5.0

A beautifully written story about regret and how we are shaped by trauma, by our family and their choices. This is a character study about Elle - her family's past, her childhood and teenage years, memorable people and events that shaped her life up to the present. The story begins with Elle cheating on her husband with her childhood love, Jonas, and then slowly unfolds to reveal what happened in the past - but not only between her and Jonas, but everything that happened to Elle to make her into the person she is now. The past informs the present and the future. Will Elle choose to stay in her stable marriage or risk breaking up her family for a second chance with Jonas? The answer to this question kept me reading, and though the answer was somewhat ambiguous, I definitely enjoyed the journey!