The Love Letter

An anonymous love letter upends a seaside town, entangling a sharp-witted bookseller in a passionate, illicit summer romance.

In praise of Rameau's Niece, the New York Times hailed "the sheer delight of listening to Cathleen Schine's wonderfully inventive comic voice."

The coastal village of Pequot provides an affectionate setting for Horatio Street Books, an offbeat seaside haven that balances quirky village eccentricities with the lively commerce of literature.

This witty narrative tracks the sudden romantic upheaval with dry charm, following the clandestine affair that unfolds when an anonymous, typed declaration to "Goat" entangles Helen with Johnny, her twenty-year-old summer clerk.

Schine's sparkling new comedy of manners is a sublimely sophisticated romance, a delectable confection that pairs illicit love with mystery and the joys of selling books.
Small Town Setting: Pequot harbors its own lively eccentricities, from public library director Miss Skattergoods sipping five-o’clock gin cocktails to beachside Fourth of July picnics by the town’s silent revolutionary cannon.Age Gap Romance: A forty-two-year-old independent bookstore owner and her contemplative young clerk bond over shared morning swims, peeled oranges, and stolen afternoons in a drafty summer house.Books About Books: Horatio Street Books comes alive through its claustrophobic "Death of Poetry" room, voracious Civil War buffs, and Helen’s stubborn belief that literature is as essential as indoor plumbing.Family Dynamics: Helen’s private sanctuary turns delightfully chaotic when her chain-smoking mother Lilian, stylish fedora-wearing grandmother Eleanor, and observant eleven-year-old daughter Emily descend on her seaside home.Also by This Author: The Evolution of Jane and Rameau’s Niece.