Shorecliff
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A winning debut novel about a 1920s New England family and the secrets revealed when they reunite over one long summer.
Spending the summer of 1928 in a big house on the Maine coast with his 10 older cousins and a gaggle of aunts and uncles seems like a dream come true to lonely 13-year-old Richard.
But as he wanders through the bustling house, Richard witnesses scenes and conversations not meant for him and watches as the family he adores disintegrates into a tangle of lust, jealousy, and betrayal. At first only an avid spectator, Richard soon finds himself drawn into the confusion, battling with his first experience of infatuation and forced to cover for his relatives' romantic intrigues.
With jump-off-the-page characters and a captivating sense of place, SHORECLIFF examines the bonds of loyalty and rivalry that can both knit a family together and drive it apart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
DeYoung's debut novel unfolds as Richard Hatfield's adult remembrance of the summer he spent with his large extended family in the eponymous estate in Maine when he was 13. The year is 1928, and Richard is the youngest of the many cousins; sexy and mysterious Francesca is the eldest, at 21. Richard gains information via "shameless eavesdropping" and then decides who would be best served by revealing what he's heard. Betrayal is the name of the game, whether it concerns Uncle Kurt's lies about hunting or Tom's time "on the couch of Venus" with a beautiful neighbor, making his devoted cousin Yvette jealous. Most of the book is narrated at a remove by Richard reciting and contextualizing his memories, which are occasionally illustrated by scenes. The reader feels the climactic crisis coming early on, and is exhausted and less than shocked by the time it arrives. DeYoung (A Vision of Modern Science) breaks no new ground in either narrative or style but does evoke the Maine of this era well, with a parade of sensory detail.
