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From the author of The Pleasing Hour: A "moving and deeply absorbing" novel of painful truths and the refuge of fiction set in a New England prep school (Newsday).A Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly Best NovelFifteen years ago, English teacher Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at the elite Fayer Academy. Living on the campus off the coast of New England, she worked to become a beloved fixture of the school—and to shelter herself and her son, Peter, from a painful secret she left behind.
Then she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, and the prescribed life Vida has constructed begins to come apart. As Peter bonds with Tom and his new stepsiblings, Vida retreats further into the books she teaches. To embrace life and a chance at happiness, she will have to face the nightmares of her former self—and shed the pain she has held onto for far too long.
Following her multiple award-winning debut,
The Pleasing Hour, Lily King has written a "domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller" (
Elle).
"King is a wonderfully engaging writer who creates characters and situations we can't resist." —
The Washington Post
About the author
Lily King is the
New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including
Euphoria,
Writers & Lovers, and
Heart the Lover, as well as the story collection
Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, and a Whiting Award. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Summary
“[A] domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller.”—Elle
“Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer.” —Chicago Tribune
Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best English teachers Fayer has ever had. Living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.
Peter, however, welcomes the changes. Excited to move off campus, eager to have siblings at last, Peter anticipates a regular life with a “normal” family. But the Belou children are still grieving, and the memory of their recently dead mother exerts a powerful hold on the house. As Vida begins teaching her signature book, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a nineteenth-century tale of an ostracized woman and social injustice, its themes begin to echo eerily in her own life and Peter sees that the mother he perceived as indomitable is collapsing and it is up to him to help.
