by Anne Rice
First published 2009
Maura Shaw drives back to Newport, Rhode Island with her two surviving children after a storm off Mackinac Island claimed her husband and older daughter Carrie. She takes a teaching position at Newport Academy, hoping the coastal town will offer her family a fresh start. Her fourteen-year-old daughter Beck retreats into mathematics, finding comfort in its unchanging rules while grieving her lost sister. Beck believes Carrie might still return and struggles to fit into the elite private school without her. Sixteen-year-old Travis navigates his own challenges, torn between a long-distance relationship and his attraction to a wealthy classmate. Maura faces her own ghosts in Newport, including an old rift with her sister and secrets from her past. The academy draws together three pairs of sisters, each dealing with the bonds and fractures that define family relationships.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Mackinac Island, Newport, Newport Academy, Rhode Island
Period: contemporary
336 pages · Hardcover · Bantam