Little Night
A Novel
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
An emotionally gripping family drama from beloved New York Times bestseller Luanne Rice
Clare Burke’s life took a devastating turn when she tried to protect her sister, Anne, from an abusive and controlling husband and ended up serving prison time for assault. The verdict largely hinged on Anne’s defense of her spouse—all lies—and the sisters have been estranged ever since. Nearly twenty years later, Clare is living a quiet life in Manhattan as an urban birder and nature blogger, when her niece, Grit, turns up on her doorstep.
The two long for a relationship with each other, but they’ll have to dig deep into their family’s difficult past in order to build one. Together they face the wounds inflicted by Anne and find in their new connection a place of healing. When Clare begins to suspect her sister might be in New York, she and her niece hold out hope for a long-awaited reunion with her.
A riveting story about women and the primal, tangled family ties that bind them together, Little Night marks a milestone for Luanne Rice—the thirtieth novel from the author with a talent for creating stories that are "exciting, emotional, terrific" (The New York Times Book Review).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After bludgeoning her sister's abusive husband with a burnt log, Clare Burke is whisked away to jail in the dramatic opening of Rice's 30th novel (after Secrets of Paris). Based on Anne's false testimony in defense of her husband, Clare serves two years for assault, the sisters become estranged, and the story picks up 18 years later in 2011 in New York City, where Clare is a blogger and birdwatcher. Though she's never fully recovered from the trauma of her sister's betrayal, Clare desperately wants to reconnect with Anne, who has since cut all ties with her family at the behest of her manipulative husband. But when Anne's 21-year-old daughter, Grit, shows up on Clare's doorstep seeking a family that loves her, Clare and her niece bond, though the subject of their common tie Anne is never far from either of their minds. The two support one another as they attempt to create a relationship and reconnect with the woman who hurt them. Poetic and stirring, Rice's latest beautifully combines her love of nature and the power of family.