Three Story House: A Novel - Softcover

Santo, Courtney Miller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062130544 ISBN 13: 9780062130549

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2014

Synopsis

Pub Date: 2014-08-19 Pages: 384 Language: English Publisher:. HarperCollins It's the almosts that haunt the Linwood cousins ??Their childhoods were marked by early success-for Lizzie on the soccer field and for Isobel on the television screen However.. in adulthood they've each failed to become what everyone expected. The cousins' insecurities about being good. but not good enough. are compounded by the half-truths they've been told about their family and ancestral home. they call Spite House. Lizzie's near career-ending injury brings her home to Memphis and face-to-face with the almosts in her life. At the same time Isobel. avoiding her estranged mother and the unrelenting whisperings about her failure to become something more than almost famous. arrives to take care of their grandmother who has fallen ill. The cousins ??find Spite House. which sits on a bluff sixty feet ab...

About this title

From the Back Cover:

As they renovate a historic Memphis house together, three cousins discover that their spectacular failures in love, career, and family provide the foundation for their future happiness in this warm and poignant novel reminiscent of The Postmistress and The Secret Life of Bees

Approaching thirty and trying to avoid the inescapable fact that they have failed to live up to everyone's expectations as well as their own aspirations, cousins and childhood best friends Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel seek respite in an oddly shaped, three-story house that sits on a bluff sixty feet above the Mississippi River.

As they work to restore the nearly condemned house, each woman faces uncomfortable truths about her own failings. Lizzie seeks answers to a long-held family secret about her father in their grandmother's jumble of mementos and the home's hidden spaces. Elyse's obsession with an old flame leads her to a harrowing mistake that threatens to destroy her sister's wedding. And Isobel's quest for celebrity tempts her to betray confidences in ways that could irreparably damage her two cousins.

This sharply observed account of the restoration of a house built out of spite but filled with memories of love is also a tale of friendship and a lesson in how relying on one another's insights and strengths provides the women with a way to get what they need instead of what they want.

About the Author:

Courtney Miller Santo teaches creative writing to college students and lives in Memphis with her husband, two children, and retired racing greyhound.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0062130544
• ISBN 13: 9780062130549
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416