Publication Date: June 25, 2024
From the author of the smash UK bestseller The Language of Kindness comes an electrifying, high-stakes literary thriller following three best friends since medical school and the twenty-five-year-old secret that now threatens to shatter their lives.
When you’re trained to protect the lives of others, how far will you go to protect your own?
Ruthlessly ambitious Olivia, anxious perfectionist Laura, and free-spirited risk-taker Anjali couldn’t be more different. Yet their friendship—which began the first day of medical school—has kept them inseparable these past twenty-five years. As wild all-nighters and exam pressure gave way to the struggles and joys of new motherhood and new jobs, their unbreakable bond helped them support each other through it all.
Long ago, they promised that nothing would come between them, and to do anything for one another—including burying that night they have never spoken about: a university party fueled by drugs, sex, and secrets that forced them to make a deadly choice that could have destroyed them. But is there a limit to what we would do for those we love?
When an eerily similar tragedy strikes involving the women’s teenaged children, everything the three friends have built threatens to crumble around them . . . forcing them to decide how far they can stretch their friendship before it snaps.
A taut and explosive novel about loyalty, ambition, betrayal, and revenge, Moral Injuries explores the sometimes-hidden costs of friendships, and the lengths people will go to protect themselves.
Three medical students form a bond of sisterhood that builds a friendship spanning more than two decades.
Author Christie Watson flashes back from 2024 to 1999 in Moral Injuries and the secrets connecting Olivia, Laura, and Anjali. Their lives unfold against a backdrop of the medical world, where each woman plays a role in saving others.
The characters are well-developed with interesting story arcs of their own, especially their roles at work.
However, memories of a past secret come crashing back when their children get caught up in a horrible situation. The friends are pitted against each other as they wrestle with family loyalties.
Ultimately, it’s a battle of wading through lies and cover-ups to determine who really is at fault. The cracks in their friendship prove to be destructive.
Moral Injuries delivers a top-notch thriller illustrating how fragile the bond of friendship is when it comes to self-preservation.
Christie Watson is a Professor of Medical Humanities at University East Anglia and worked as a nurse with the National Health Service for over twenty years. She has written five books, including her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, which won the Costa First Novel Award, and a memoir, The Language of Kindness, which was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. She is a contributor to the Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, and TEDx, and her work has been translated into twenty-three languages and adapted for theater. She lives in London.
