The Curiosities

By the author of Vintage: "A stained glass window of a novel: lovely, glowing and precise . . . brims with insight into grief and joy, love and regret." —Greer Macallister, USA Today–bestselling author of The Thirteenth Husband

Nell Parker has a PhD in art history, a loving husband named Josh, and a bungalow in Madison, Wisconsin. But in secret, her heart is still reeling from the tragic loss of the one baby she and Josh have managed to conceive. Rather than pausing to grieve, she seeks out testing and fertility treatments, hiding the steep costs from her husband. Meanwhile, Josh urges Nell to apply for jobs so she can focus on something other than a baby that may never be.


Luckily, the Mansion Hill Artists' Colony needs a director. Nell is handed a set of keys to the lakeside mansion where the artists reside—and left to figure things out on her own. The young metal sculptor, Odin, keeps the other residents awake with his late-night welding projects. Annie, a dreadlocked granny, may be dealing drugs out of the basement "studio." And Paige, an art student from the university, experiments with new printing and design techniques in the third-floor turret, and leads a string of bad boyfriends upstairs when she stumbles home in the wee hours. 


Despite all the drama, Nell finds something akin to a family among the members of this creative community. And when her attraction to Odin begins to heat up, Nell is forced to decide what will bring her greater joy—the inspired world she's built for herself, or the familiar but increasingly fragile one of her marriage.


"Memorable . . . a transportive, satisfying portrait of an artists' colony." —Publishers Weekly

"An eclectic mix of characters . . . Thoroughly satisfying, from the first page to the last." —Jessica Strawser, USA Today-bestselling author of The Last Caretaker