DEEP SECRETS

A family’s history intertwines with the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic.

Nineteen-year-old Colette is tired of staying home while her mother, brother Antoine, and sister Genevieve go to work in 1929 New York City. Her mother says she doesn’t want Colette to get sick, which happened often when she was young, but Colette has been healthy for years. She wonders if Papa would have let her work if he were around. But she has no memory of the father who died when she was a toddler—only curiosity about his identity. During one of her few permitted outings, Colette secretly gets a job with Walter, the grocery store owner, to lower her family’s unpaid debt. There, Colette spends time with her crush, Claude, who also has a mother from France, and learns about Walter’s experiences on the Titanic. In fascinating journal-style entries, Walter describes the tragedy and its aftermath. Smith intertwines elements of the social and economic landscape: Colette’s learning about racism, the stock market crash that affects her family’s factory jobs, and the vivid Greenwich Village social scene. Readers will identify with Colette’s journey as she questions her origins and negotiates her place in the world.

Honest and gripping; a new take on a familiar historical event.