Maia Caron’s resilient women coming to Free Press Book Club
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/01/2025 (287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are kicking off the 2025 reading season by welcoming Vancouver Island author Maia Caron to the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss her novel The Last Secret.
Published in September 2024 by Doubleday Canada, The Last Secret employs a dual timeline following the lives of two women, Savka Ivanets and Jeanie Esterhazy.
In Ukraine in 1944, Savka works as a medic for the Ukrainian resistance while her husband, Marko, is an active Waffen-SS officer who spends much of his time away from home on deployment. When he returns one night, he makes an impossible request of Savka: for her and their young son, Taras, to deliver a coded message to a nearby bunker. That short journey results in the separation of mother and son, of wife and husband, and is followed by years of searching, hiding, escaping (eventually to Canada) and reunions that aren’t exactly what she had dreamed of.
On Salt Spring Island in 1972, artist Jeanie is still physically and emotionally recovering after a horrific accident that happened at her wedding years earlier, resulting in severe burns all over her body and earning her the undesirable moniker “fire bride.” As Jeanie remembers more about what happened immediately after the accident, her current home care and living situations start to feel much less safe.
An overlapping hospital stay for the two female protagonists in Vancouver in 1959 is the unexpected merging point of this novel, where Caron deftly weaves together the multiple stories — not just from Savka and Jeanie’s perspective, but from Marko’s and others as well — creating a cohesive path for a thrilling ending.
Caron will join Winnipeg author and Free Press copy editor Ariel Gordon, Chris Hall of McNally Robinson Booksellers and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar to read from The Last Secret, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers.
Copies of The Last Secret are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there’s no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion.
Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event.
To join the Free Press Book Club and for more information on current and future book picks, visit wfp.to/bookclubBook Club.