The Half Brother
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Evocative of Dead Poets Society and The Starboard Sea, Holly LeCraw's The Half Brother is the story of secrets and betrayals between two brothers set amid the ivy-covered walls of an elite New England boarding school.
When Charlie Garrett arrives as a young teacher at the Abbott School, he finds a world steeped in privilege and tradition. The school's green quads are lined by gothic stone halls, students dart across campus in blazers and bright plaid skirts. Fresh out of college and barely older than the students he teaches, Charlie longs to find his place in the rarefied world of Abbottsford. He gets to know the school chaplain, Preston Bankhead, and is drawn to Preston's beautiful young daughter, May, a student at the school.
Then, Charlie's younger half brother, Nick, arrives on campus. Nick is, quite literally, the golden child, with sandy blond hair and a dazzling smile. Teachers welcome him warmly; students stay late to talk after class; and May Bankhead proves susceptible to his magnetic power. As Charlie sees the unmistakable connection between his first love and his half brother, he struggles with emotions far more complicated than mere jealousy. A terrible secret threatens to surface, and Charlie's peaceful campus life is in jeopardy.
A complex, sexy, page-turning novel, LeCraw's latest asks how much we will sacrifice to protect those we love and how far we will go to keep the past safely buried.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In LeCraw's wildly melodramatic sophomore novel (after The Swimming Pool), Charlie Garrett is a Southern boy who graduates from Harvard and finds a teaching position at the Abbott School in north-central Massachusetts. There, he meets Preston Bankhead, the school's commanding chaplain, and his 12-year-old daughter, May, who is a student. Over the course of the next several years, May grows up and she and Charlie fall in love. But when May's father is diagnosed with cancer, Charlie abruptly breaks things off. Ten years later, Charlie is still teaching at Abbott with May and his younger half-brother, Nicky. Charlie tries to bring Nicky and May together, but is unprepared for the consequences that follow. Then Charlie and Nicky's widowed mother arrives at the school for Christmas. She winds up in the hospital, setting the stage for a series of events that will throw the past into clear relief. LeCraw has fashioned a contemporary novel that feels positively Victorian with its overuse of coincidence and deathbed confessions. The story takes place over the course of two decades, but Charlie, who narrates, never seems to age mentally, making it difficult for readers to get a fix on where they are in the story. Add a school scandal to the mix and this overstuffed, awkwardly plotted novel completely strains belief.
