From GMA Book Club pick and Women’s Prize finalist Angie Cruz, a heartfelt novel about a woman who returns to Italy to search for her missing friend, only to uncover unsettling truths about herself

When Stefania doesn’t reply to Bella’s text, Bella immediately knows something is wrong. She and Stefania might see each other only once a year, when Bella spends a month with her in Italy, but they have been best friends for twenty years. Stefania always texts back. But days pass with no word, and Bella realizes that, as close as they are, she actually doesn’t know much about Stefania’s life. She doesn’t know the name of the school where she works, or the phone numbers of her friends and neighbors, or how she spends the other eleven months of the year. Bella’s internet searching leads to nothing, and she decides the only way to find Stefania is to fly to Italy and hunt for clues.

In Italy, as Bella digs into Stefania’s life and her own memories, she is forced to acknowledge that perhaps she hasn’t been as good a friend as she thought. Suddenly, Bella is forced to confront the worries she tamps down in New York City, where her life is a whirlwind of author engagements and single parenting. Is she a good mother to her daughter? Will she become invisible in her middle age? Has she been selfish with the friends she loves? Bella wants to find Stefania, but can she find herself, too?

Utterly immersive, full of surprise and heart, What Women Don’t Say is about how our closest friends can still contain mysteries, and it is never too late to discover the truth of our own stories.