Goodnight, Beautiful

The Blurb

everybody has secrets . . . will this one break somebody’s heart?

Eight years ago, Nova Kumalisi agreed to have a baby for Mal and Stephanie Wacken. Halfway through the pregnancy, the couple changed their minds and walked away, leaving Nova pregnant, scared and alone.

Eight years ago, Stephanie was overjoyed at the thought of becoming a mother – until she found a text from Mal to Nova saying, ‘Goodnight, beautiful’. Terrified of losing her husband to his closest friend, Stephanie asked him to cut all ties to Nova and their unborn child.

Now, Nova is anxiously waiting for her son, Leo, to wake up from a coma, while childless Stephanie is desperately trying to save her failing marriage. Although they live separate lives, both women have secrets that will bind them together for ever . .

Incredibly moving and powerfully written, Goodnight, Beautiful is a tale of love, friendship and new beginnings.

About The Book

Goodnight, Beautiful is my fifth novel to be published and it’s different again from the other books. One of the main themes of the book is surrogacy.

Before I left Australia, and I was writing Marshmallows For Breakfast, the subject of people having children for other people came up with surprising frequency. I met women who had donated eggs to friends and others who knew people who were either donating eggs or having babies for family members or friends. It seemed a lot of people were doing this amazing thing outside of registered agencies and outside of the stories we hear in the press.

Although circumstances for every instance of egg donation or surrogacy were different, one element was always the same: relationships between the donor and intended parents were irrevocably altered – sometimes for the better, sometimes detrimentally. I decided that this was a subject I wanted to explore because it was another dynamic of human relationships that I hadn’t thought to investigate. I wanted, also, to write about the subject of surrogacy from the angle of the strain it must put on the intended parents’ relationship, and the little-talked-about subject of what a surrogate would do if they are left holding the baby.

It was an enlightening experience looking into the minds and hearts of those involved in surrogacy, and I spent a lot of time trying to work out whether I would be able to do it for someone I love – I’m still unsure what the answer is.

The novel also touches on the subjects of the secrets we keep even from those we love and mental illness. Hopefully, it will be as thought-provoking a read for you, as it was for me to write.

Reviews

Nova and Mal had been the closest of friends since childhood, but their friendship was shattered when Mal announced that he and his wife, Stephanie, no longer wanted the child Nova was carrying for them. That child is now seven years old and critically ill in hospital; a harrowing situation that provides the catalyst for the many secrets of the past to reveal themselves. Warn your family and friends that you will be incommunicado for a few hours, maybe a day or two, find a comfy chair, and enjoy. Immerse yourself in the complex lives of these beautiful, but flawed characters. You may not like them or agree with their decisions, but as the author skilfully reveals their innermost thoughts and secrets you can’t help but be moved. I was totally gripped from start to finish; this book is like a really, really good gossip with a close friend. It is a wonderful indulgence as an individual read, and a book that will provide lots to talk about for a reading group. New Books Magazine

An intelligent and emotional read. Closer

The conception of Leo, a beautiful dark-haired boy, sits like an unexploded mine in the lives of his parents, Mal and his childhood friend Nova – who has agreed to have the baby to help out Mal and his wife Steph. Things first go wrong during the pregnancy when Steph becomes jealous of her husband’s friendship with Nova. In an attempt to neutralise an impossible situation, it’s agreed that Nova will keep the child and that Mal will cut off all contact – a solution that is clearly never going to hold. The tensions inherent in such an arrangement tear it apart seven years later when Leo is lying in hospital in a coma. Told through first person narratives in the voices of Nova, the surrogate mother and Steph, the would-have-been mum, with little italicised extras from Leo, it movingly documents the heartbreak and emotional reshuffling of family and friends coping with love and loss. Daily Mail

A touching tale of love and loss. Best

THIS week I’m excited about… the brilliant Dorothy Koomson’s new novel Goodnight, Beautiful. I picked it up for an hour of leisurely reading on Saturday morning. The end result? Four lost hours, a cancelled lunch and I cried so hard I did a fine impression of Gazza in the Walkers crisps advert. By teatime, my eyes were so swollen that husband asked if I had conjunctivitis. Buy it, read it, love it – then have a long lie down in a dark room until the swelling subsides. Shari Low, Daily Record

A superior cautionary tale Good Housekeeping

Their lives had been inextricably woven since childhood. He was nova’s first friend. Her first love. And he is the father of her beautiful little boy, who is lying in a hospital room, hovering between life and death. But Mal isn’t here with her, because since the moment that they agreed to create their son a web of destruction, lies and hurt has spun out of control, tearing them apart . . . And now it might be too late for one of them to get back everything that was lost. An unforgettable, beautifully crafted testimony to an unbreakable love that lasts a lifetime and beyond. Daily Record

Irresistibly complicated Red

My Best Friend’s Girl was Richard and Judy’s Summer Read in 2006. Since then, Koomson has given us four more novels and her latest, Goodnight, Beautiful, is her best. With characteristic humorous and detailed description, she introduces us to ova, left to bring up her son Leo alone when a surrogacy arrangement with her best friend and his wife goes horribly wrong. Eight years later, she finds herself waiting desperately for Leo, critically ill, to wake from a coma. Beautifully written, with characters you’ll really care about – this is not to be missed. SHE magazine

A tragic novel about a surrogacy agreement gone wrong… Cosmopolitan

A moving read. Hot Stars

You’ll need tissues. Heat