Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers
"A stunning achievement, and J. Courtney Sullivan's best book yet. Sullivan weaves a narrative that's fascinating and thought-provoking. I literally could not put this book down."
--Ann Napolitano, New York Times best-selling author of Hello Beautiful
On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century's worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.
Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted--perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers--of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism--is even older than Maine itself.
Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.
"The crumbling Victorian had been abandoned long before Jane ever discovered it as a child. It was painted a sweet violet color, and the gingerbread trim was blue and green, but inside was shambles--broken glass, a dollhouse ravaged by mice, bedsheets twisted as though someone had left in a hurry. Still, the house became a hideaway whenever Jane needed to escape her volatile mother. Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following the dissolution of her marriage and is horrified to find the Victorian is barely recognizable. A rich lady from Beacon Hill has gutted it, and in its place stands a glossy white mansion straight out of a shelter magazine. But the home's new owner is unhappy. Her young son claims to have been speaking to the ghost of a child, and she keeps finding marbles on the floor. Troubled that she might have done something to anger the spirit world, a concept Jane dismisses as daffy, the wealthy woman hires her to research the land. The story Jane uncovers--of husbands lost at sea, wives mourning along the cliffs, historical artifacts stolen and sold, lovers secreted away, and, at the center of it all, a tale of colonialism--is as old as Maine itself."-- Provided by publisher.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
This highly anticipated novel from Sullivan (Friends and Strangers) was worth the wait. Protagonist Jane is a Harvard archivist who, like her mother and sister, is addicted to alcohol. After getting blackout drunk at a work event, she finds her job, as well as her marriage, in jeopardy, making this the perfect time to escape from all her troubles. She heads up to Maine to settle her late mother's estate, which is complicated by the fact that her mother was a hoarder. As a teenager, Jane found an old abandoned Victorian house up high on a cliff nearby, which became her refuge. As an adult, she is surprised to learn that a wealthy young family has bought the house and turned it into a typical beach McMansion. The owner, who fears that the house is haunted, possibly due to some unsavory work she had done, hires Jane to research the house's history. That research is at the heart of this novel that spans generations and covers colonialism, Indigenous history, spiritualism, the Shakers, and so much more. VERDICT A beautifully written, expansive novel, sure to please fans of Daniel Mason's North Woods or the work of Kate Morton and Susanna Kearsley.--Stacy Alesi
Publishers Weekly Review
Bestseller Sullivan (Friends and Strangers) toys with gothic and supernatural elements in her propulsive latest. After a drunken faux pas lands Harvard archivist Jane Flanagan in trouble at work and on the rocks with her husband, she moves back into her recently deceased mother's house in coastal Maine. Grief and shame weigh heavily on her, so when Genevieve, the new owner of a neighboring cliffside mansion, offers Jane a research project, she jumps at the chance for a distraction. Genevieve has overheard her young son talking to someone in an upstairs bedroom who might be a ghost, and she asks Jane to investigate the house's history, terrified that her renovations--including digging up graves to make room for a swimming pool--have disturbed the spirits of those buried on the property. The stories Jane discovers reach back through the Victorian era to encounters between Indigenous people and colonists, and include a rewarding twist that sheds light on long-held mysteries from Jane's childhood. Sullivan leans on many pages of exposition and a few too many coincidences to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, but, for the most part, the plot motors along like a well-oiled machine. This satisfies. (July)
Booklist Review
The death of Jane Flanagan's estranged mother opens old wounds, and she returns to her childhood home in Maine to help her sister clean out their mother's house. Jane's friend Allison sends her to a psychic medium in hopes of providing her with some closure, but the visit brings up a mystery related to a dilapidated seaside mansion that Jane loved as a teenager. The mansion's new owner, Genevieve, hires Jane to research its history, and Jane struggles to connect the psychic's message with the unusual--possibly ghostly--occurrences happening in the home. Sullivan (Friends and Strangers, 2020) thoughtfully explores both Jane's inner life and the history of the Maine coast, weaving stories of settlers, Shakers, and Indigenous inhabitants of the area with the contemporary plot. Jane is a complex character shaped by her past and trying to figure out her future, and her research leads to an overarching theme: whose story is remembered and told, and why? Readers who enjoy the blend of history, interpersonal drama, and ghost story found in Karen White's Tradd Street series will feel right at home.
Kirkus Book Review
A novel about a woman, a house, and the history that haunts them. Jane Flanagan, who lives in Awadapquit, Maine, with her alcoholic mother and chip-off-the-old-block sister, is in high school when she first sees the house, perched on a cliff overlooking the water. Deserted, rotting, and creepy, but boasting colorful turrets and an abiding sense of mystery, the abandoned Victorian home fascinates Jane. It becomes her refuge, where she can escape her life's hassles and feel at peace. Eventually, Jane goes to college (Wesleyan) and gets a graduate degree in American history (Yale). She lands her "dream job" as an archivist at Harvard and her dream husband, a handsome, kind economics professor who runs marathons and bakes. Then, in one boozy blowout of a night not long after her mother's death, Jane explodes her whole dreamy life. When she returns to Awadapquit to ready her mother's cluttered home for sale and contend with her equally messy legacy, Jane connects with Genevieve Richards, a wealthy woman who's bought the old house and, while renovating, heedlessly bulldozed its history. Has Genevieve stirred up the property's ghosts? Hired by Genevieve to unearth the house's secrets and its often painful past, Jane must contend with her own. Sullivan--whose bestsellers include, most recently, Friends and Strangers (2020)--writes with her usual compassion, insight, and sensitivity, creating multidimensional characters about whom, even as they make regrettable mistakes, the reader unwaveringly cares. She also tells a broader story of America's complicated history, weaving in accounts of Indigenous and Shaker women, and poses powerful questions about how to right the wrongs of the past. Sullivan artfully and astutely engages with difficult topics in this absorbing, affecting novel. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
TextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2024]Edition: First editionDescription: 384 pages ; 23 cmContent type: