Sea Glass: A Novel - Hardcover

Shreve, Anita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316780812 ISBN 13: 9780316780810

Publisher: Little, Brown, 2002

Synopsis

Honora and Sexton Beecher find their lives forever changed when they are rendered virtually penniless by the crash of the stock market, forcing Sexton to work in a nearby mill, a job that is plagued by violence, and as they try to reconstruct their marriage and home, they are confronted by passions of every kind, in a powerful novel by the author of The Pilot's Wife. 300,000 first printing.

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 many acclaimed novels, including Resistance, The Weight of Water, Fortune's Rocks, The Last Time They Met, and the international bestseller The Pilot's Wife, which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club. She lives in New England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0316780812
• ISBN 13: 9780316780810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384