Renee Gulliver appears to have it all: a beautiful house overlooking a scenic estuary on England's East Coast; a successful career as a relationship therapist; three grown-up children; and a beloved grandson, Xavier. But things aren't always as they seem on the surface, as Renee is all too aware. And when Xavier vanishes after she fails to pick him up from school one day, the repercussions are manifold. Renee is wracked with remorse; her daughter Mia can't forgive her; the local community question her priorities; and her clients abandon her. But as long-held family secrets threaten to tear her world apart once and for all, those same secrets might also hold hope for the future - because it's not always the secret itself that has the power to destroy; sometimes it's the act of keeping of it . . . For fans of Hannah Beckerman and Lucy Diamond, Penny Hancock's The Choice is a beautiful, haunting novel about family secrets and silences - and the power of love.