The Last Secret: A Novel

•INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER•
A sweeping, dazzling dual-timeline novel centering on two unforgettable women—and their inextricable link to each other decades apart.

Ukraine, 1944

As the world around her is ripped apart by war and infiltrated by Nazi soldiers, Savka Ivanets works as a medic for the Ukrainian resistance, stitching wounds by day, stealing supplies by night, and dodging firefights between the SS and Soviet partisans. When her husband, Marko, a reluctant member of the Waffen-SS, forces her to deliver a coded message to an underground bunker, she’s terrified. But when her mission doesn’t go as planned, and her son, Taras, is kidnapped by the KGB, Savka fears she’ll never see him again.

Salt Spring Island, 1972

For Jeanie Esterhazy, the world, with its whispers and curious eyes, is too much to bear. Ever since the horrific accident that left her badly scarred, Jeanie, unable to remember anything about that awful day, has pulled away from society, utterly isolated.

Then a mysterious stranger appears at her house, and Jeanie suddenly begins having flashbacks about the night of her wedding—flashbacks that hold answers to the questions she’s had for years; flashbacks that make her realize the world around her is not as it seems.  

Weaving together Savka and Jeanie's stories with artful precision, The Last Secret is at once luminous and transporting, a brilliant and impossible-to-forget story of love, hope, and the breathtaking resilience of women.

MAIA CARON is a Vancouver Island-based Indigenous writer and author of Song of Batoche, a historical novel that was a CBC must-read book for 2018. The Toronto Star described the novel as a "tale of love, betrayal and obsession," and Shelagh Rogers of The Last Chapter said it was an "ambitious, broad, sweeping, historical mystery."

ISBN: 9780385688826
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: September 24, 2024

"An extraordinarily powerful novel cinematically weaving one gripping layer into the next. From the frozen hellscape of Eastern Europe during WW2 to the lush green of Salt Spring Island in Canada, The Last Secret delivers a thrilling story of survival and love that held me spellbound throughout. Brava, Ms. Caron! An easy five stars." —Genevieve Graham, #1 bestselling author of The Forgotten Home Child

"A tense and thrilling ride of a story." —Janie Chang, bestselling author of The Porcelain Moon and The Library of Legends

"How delicious to discover sleepy Salt Spring Island, BC, caught up in the icy tendrils of a Cold War thriller. Sweeping from hardship to heartache, The Last Secret is a timely reminder of the improbable bonds forged, broken and recast on World War II’s Eastern Front. Here, revenge is served tundra-cold, but with a dash of sea salt and fire." —Shelley Wood

"This haunting and exquisitely written story will stay with me for a long time to come." —Gwen Tuinman, author of Unrest

“The Last Secret is a masterfully crafted historical thriller, a riveting tale that sweeps across decades and continents. The intertwined stories of a Ukranian woman ruthlessly pursued by the Russian secret police and a scarred young artist at the mercy of her nurse’s sinister machinations converge in a climactic, heart-stopping showdown on a remote island in the pacific northwest. Maia Caron has irresistibly woven historical drama, mystery and romance in a gripping tribute to women’s resistance and resilience.” —Lilian Nattel, author of Only Sisters