The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty: book review

The Fifth Letter (2017) is set in Australia in 1993 and 23 years later in June and July 2016.

In 1993, four 12-year-old girls formed a friendship group based on their birth month (November) and the initial of their surnames (C): Joni Camilleri, Deborah Camden, Trina Chan, and Eden Chester.

Joni married Kai (no children); Deb married Connor (one child); Trina married Josh (one child) ; and Eden married Ben (two children). In June 2016, the four 35-year-old women reunite in a holiday house, as they had been doing almost every year since they turned twenty-one.

During the holiday, each of the women write an anonymous letter to the group to share one secret about themselves. The letters are read aloud.

How is it that friends for 23 years did not know the others’ secrets? And can they guess who wrote the letter from the style of writing? They do try to guess, and they do judge the letter-writer – or, at least, express their views on the secret revealed. Someone likes one woman’s husband; another secretly goes to a divorce group; one had a baby at sixteen; and so on.

However, one woman wrote two letters and attempted to burn one, but another woman found the partially burned letter – the fifth letter.

The letters, especially the fifth letter, has an impact on their friendships, and on their marriages.

This is a light, summer holiday read.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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