“Fran Hawthorne delivers a nuanced exploration of the connections among women – and how they can unravel when lies of omission are revealed… I Meant to Tell You kept me turning the pages late into the night.” —Jennifer Coburn, USA Today best-selling author of Cradles of the Reich

 

“Fran Hawthorne has written a wise, kind, and above all compassionate novel about the secrets we keep and the judgments we make.” —Yona Zeldis McDonough, Fiction Editor of Lilith  

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When Miranda Isaacs’s fiancé, Russ Steinmann, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke about whether Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. But as it turns out, the real threat emerges after the attorney’s office discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier – an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about. 

 

    Miranda tries to explain that she was merely helping her best friend, Ronit, in the midst of a nasty divorce and custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. Russ doesn’t see it quite as innocently. “I thought I knew you,” he says.

 

   The repercussions of this one secret will not only threaten Miranda's and Russ's relationship; they will also change what Miranda thought she knew about Ronit, Russ, and her own family.