Big Little Truths

Big Little Truths returns to Pirriwee ten years after the events of Big Little Lies. The old kindergarten parents are now the parents of teenagers, and the central joke of the novel’s epigraph becomes painfully true: little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems. Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie are still connected by friendship, history and the secret of Perry White’s death, but their children now have their own alliances, secrets and dangers.

The novel opens on “D-Day,” a spring morning at Pirriwee High School. A group of six teenagers runs from school to the beach: Chloe Mackenzie, Skye, Amabella, Ziggy, and Celeste’s twins, Max and Josh. They are laughing, crying, terrified and triumphant. Back at school, administrator Lottie Wang opens a package addressed to the principal, Dr Ferdinand Seawright, and finds what she first thinks is a horrible promotional gimmick: a severed finger. Science teacher Anna Kennard confirms it is real. The school explodes with rumours, students are thrilled and horrified, parents’ WhatsApp groups go into overdrive, and Detective Chief Inspector Adrian Quinlan is called in.

Interspersed through the novel are transcripts from a “Safe Space Student Counselling” session after the scandal. Through these transcripts we gradually learn that the six teenagers have been working together on a history documentary. They originally chose Winston Churchill as a “misunderstood historical figure,” which is why they call the catastrophe “D-Day.” But their project eventually turns into something far more dangerous: an exposé of their brilliant, beloved history teacher, Melody Montclair.