The Cliffs: 'Entrancing ... filled with mystery' Reese Witherspoon, Reese's Book Club Pick July Pick - Softcover

Sullivan, Julie Courtney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034999417X ISBN 13: 9780349994178

Publisher: Abacus, 2024

Synopsis

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB JULY PICK

A deeply satisfying and enjoyable novel about family, secrets, ghosts and homecoming

'Entrancing ... filled with mystery' Reese Witherspoon, Reese's Book Club July Picks

'I could not put this book down' Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful

'Compulsively readable ... funny, heartbreaking' Oprah Daily

On a secluded cliff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house that contains a century's worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned - yet there are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane, and becomes a hideaway for her, a place to escape her troubled, 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 magazine. Convinced that the house is haunted, Genevieve 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 artefacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism - is even older than Maine itself ...

About this title

About the Author

J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels The Engagements, Maine, and Commencement. Maine was named a 2011 Time magazine Best Book of the Year and a Washington Post Notable Book. The Engagements was one of People Magazine's Top Ten Books of 2013 and an Irish Times Best Book of the Year, and has been translated into seventeen languages. She has contributed to The New York Times Book Review, the Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, and O: The Oprah Magazine, among many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From the Back Cover

'Entrancing ... filled with mystery' Reese Witherspoon, Reese's Book Club July Pick


Her life in crisis due to a dreadful mistake she wishes she could undo, Jane Flanagan flees to the seaside town in Maine where she grew up. When she returns to the mysterious gothic house on the cliffs that was her refuge during childhood, she meets the wealthy newcomer who is renovating the house beyond all recognition - and agrees to delve into the house's haunting secrets ...


'A dilapidated lavender mansion, perched high on a craggy bluff in Maine, turns out to be more than a home: It's the key to a century of hopes, misdeeds and family ghosts' New York Times


'Haunting ... a provocative ghost story that questions how we right our wrongs of the past' Time


'Weaving together the stories of women in Maine over centuries, this novel is about maternal loss and trauma, the idea of home, and most affecting, the stories that remain untold' Emma Straub, author of This Time Tomorrow


'Riveting. A haunted house mystery steeped in historical context' New York Times Book Review


'Compulsively readable ... funny, heartbreaking' Oprah Daily

Edition details

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 034999417X
• ISBN 13: 9780349994178
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384