Sea Glass: A Novel - Softcover

Shreve, Anita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316089699 ISBN 13: 9780316089692

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2003

Synopsis

With all the narrative power and emotional immediacy that have made her novels acclaimed international bestsellers, Anita Shreve unfolds a richly engaging tale of marriage, money, and troubled times-the story of a pair of young newlyweds who, setting out to build a life together in a derelict beach house on the Atlantic coast, soon discover how threatening the world outside their front door can be.

About this title

Review:

From its opening pages, Anita Shreve's Sea Glass surrounds the reader in the surprisingly rich feeling of the New Hampshire coast in winter. Vividly evoking the life of the coastal community at the beginning of the Great Depression, Sea Glass shifts through the multiple points of view of six principal characters; it's a skillfully created story of braided lives that bounces easily (even inevitably) from character to character. We learn how these lives come together following the stock market crash of 1929 and about the struggles of mill workers on the starkly beautiful New Hampshire coast during the following year. At the novel's center is the story of Honora Beecher, a young newlywed who compulsively collects sea glass along the beach as she collects unexpected friendship in her new beachside community, and Francis, a boy who discovers a father figure in the towering character of McDermott, an Irish mill worker, at a time when he most needs direction. Each character finds unexpected new purpose beyond the struggle to survive during that turbulent year among the dunes. First their lives barely touch, then they intersect, and finally they become inextricably bound. By the powerful and unexpected final scenes of the story, every point of view, every brilliant shard of life depends deeply on all the others. It is a very satisfying read--confidently told and deeply felt--with as many subtle colors and reflections as the sea glass that permeates the narrative. --Paul Ford

About the Author:

Anita Shreve is the author of several internationally bestselling novels: The Pilot's Wife, which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club; Eden Close; Strange Fits of Passion; Where or When; Resistance; The Weight of Water, which was a finalist for the prestigious Orange Prize; and Fortune's Rocks. She lives in New England

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0316089699
• ISBN 13: 9780316089692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400