First published 2021
Hepzibah Pyncheon lives alone in the decaying seven-gabled mansion that has housed her family for generations. The house carries a curse from its founding, when her ancestor Colonel Pyncheon seized the land from Matthew Maule, who died pronouncing doom upon the family line. Now Hepzibah struggles with poverty and isolation in the crumbling rooms. Her brother Clifford returns after decades of imprisonment, broken by his ordeal. The weight of ancestral sins presses down on them both like a corpse upon the living. Then Phoebe arrives from the countryside, bringing youth and vitality to the stagnant household. Her presence begins to transform the atmosphere of the mansion and the lives of its inhabitants. As past and present collide, the Pyncheon family must confront whether they can escape the guilt that has haunted them for generations. The story explores how one generation's crimes echo through time, and whether love and innocence can overcome inherited shame.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 19th-century, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-legacy, haunted-house, past-vs-present
Setting: House of the Seven Gables
Period: 19th-century
326 pages · Hardcover · Independently published