The Cliffs: Reese's Book Club
A novel
-
-
3.9 • 32 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Past speaks to present in this gripping historical novel set around a Maine beach town property. While renovating her new summer home, wealthy matron Genevieve illegally digs up a small graveyard to put in an infinity pool. Convinced that the angry former residents are now haunting the house, she calls in an archivist named Jane to research the house’s history, which dates back to the 19th century. Jane, a troubled alcoholic, specializes in making unknown women’s voices heard but isn’t so good at listening to herself. As she digs into the stories of the dead women—a gifted painter, a former Shaker turned maid, and others—she learns more about herself and her own connection to the property. Author J. Courtney Sullivan explores complex issues like colonialism, the legacy of the Civil War, and 20th-century gender roles. In the process, The Cliffs becomes an intimate patchwork quilt of love, loss, and finding joy in unexpected places.
Customer Reviews
Unexpected
*maybe spoilers*
I have to applaud the other for bringing up the topic of First Nations without it sounding forced or en sincere, as a person of First Nations descent when it first arrived in the novel I bristled because it has often been told so poorly. With that being said, the author’s narrative of addiction is also another subject that was addressed but never came across as judgmental. Instead it narrated an honest first person account. Rarely is one let alone both addressed in a novel as well as this one. Neither overshadowed the story line. My only critique is I wish the story continued, where did they go?
Disappointing
So many stories within the main story. It was unnecessary to the main plot and a waste of time.