First published 2000
Elizabeth Channing steps off a bus in the small Cape Cod village of Chatham during the summer of 1926. She has come to teach art at Chatham School, an exclusive boys' academy that transforms wayward sons of wealthy families into proper young gentlemen. Elizabeth settles into a cottage by Black Pond, bringing with her a lifetime of unconventional education. Her father raised her across Europe, from Madrid's plazas to Venice's canals to the Roman apartment where Keats drew his final breath. He taught her that passion must triumph over propriety, that artists must serve their calling above all else, that moral conventions stifle the human spirit. These beliefs, forged in European capitals and bohemian circles, collide with Chatham's rigid expectations. The conflict draws in the headmaster's son and threatens to destroy the carefully ordered world of this tiny seacoast community. Elizabeth's arrival sets forces in motion that will transform lives and shatter the peace of Chatham itself.
Genres: art, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unconventional-upbringing
Setting: Black Pond, Cape Cod, Chatham, Chatham School, Europe, Madrid, Roman, Venice
Period: 1926, 19th-century, 20th-century
317 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Indigo