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The Second Home: A Novel

The Second Home: A Novel

Current price: $26.99
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2020
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
ISBN:
9781250239341
Pages:
352

While reading The Second Home, you can taste the saltwater of both the ocean and the tears of familial pain. Christina Clancy has written a beautiful story of family and the bonds that can be broken and somehow repaired again. The characters and location are so well-written, you’ll feel like you’ve vacationed on the Cape for years with the Gordon family. Fans of Jane Hamilton and We Were the Mulvaneys will love The Second Home.

Nancy Baenen, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI
June 2020 Indie Next List

Description

"A novel of family and place and belonging." Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist

"Tender and suspenseful." Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author

Some places never leave you...

After a disastrous summer spent at her family’s home on Cape Cod when she is seventeen, Ann Gordon is very happy to never visit Wellfleet again. If only she’d stayed in Wisconsin, she might never have met Anthony Shaw, and she would have held onto the future she’d so carefully planned for herself. Instead, Ann ends up harboring a devastating secret that strains her relationship with her parents, sends her sister Poppy to every corner of the world chasing waves (and her next fling), and leaves her adopted brother Michael estranged from the family.

Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, and Ann and Poppy are left to decide the fate of the beach house that’s been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is forever tainted with bad memories. And while Poppy loves the old saltbox on Drummer Cove, owning a house means settling, and she’s not sure she’s ready to stay in one place.

Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to a third of the estate. He wants the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about what happened that long-ago summer that changed all of their lives forever. As the siblings reunite after years apart, their old secrets and lies, longings and losses, are pulled to the surface. Is the house the one thing that can still bring them together––or will it tear them apart, once and for all?

Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy, and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places we return to again and again. It is about second homes, second families, and second chances. Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, The Second Home is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with, and won't soon forget.

About the Author

Christina Clancy is the author of Shoulder Season and The Second Home. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Sun magazine, and in various literary journals, including Glimmer Train, Pleiades, and Hobart. She holds a Ph.D. in creative writing.

Praise for The Second Home: A Novel

Praise for The Second Home:

One of Good Morning America's "25 Novels You'll Want to Read this Summer"

"Christina Clancy writes with warmth, wit, and wisdom about fantastically human characters. A novel of family and place and belonging for fans of Ann Packer and J. Courtney Sullivan." —Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Great Believers

"I gobbled The Second Home in a matter of days, fully invested in the history, hurt, and hopes of this very human family. Christina Clancy writes with empathy and rich detail: to read about the Gordons is to smell the pine and oak of Wellfleet, to tread the well-worn rooms of their eccentric summer home, and to learn all sides of the explosive rift that sent them hurtling in different directions. Tender and suspenseful, Clancy's debut explores the nature of home as well as the nature of family itself—given and chosen." —Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

"A sure-footed ode to the strength of family, the depth of loss, and the power of forgiveness." —J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times best-selling author, Kitchens of the Great Midwest

"The Second Home shows us how families are knit together and how they unravel; how a place—a geography, a house—can act as the repository for our best and most important memories. And that even the most damaged past can be reclaimed, a hard-won wisdom that shines through on every page." —Jean Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Year We Left Home

"Clancy imagines her complicated characters with such empathy and precision that every questionable choice, every mistake, feels like the only option. The Second Home is a big, sprawling, smart, beautiful story about love and betrayal, home and family, and the foundations of forgiveness." —Lauren Fox, author of Days of Awe, Friends Like Us, and Still Life With Husband

"Christina Clancy writes with an arresting vividness and a nuanced understanding of her characters, who are buffeted by a storm of conflicting desires. A poignant but also very entertaining novel—full of startling detail, humor, and above all, an abiding sympathy for its beautifully drawn characters." —Christine Sneed, author of Little Known Facts

"This deeply moving and heartfelt book explores what makes a home - and how homes make us. It's deftly plotted, sensuously told, and incredibly smart about the secrets that pull families apart and the love that knits them back together." —Liam Callanan, author of Paris by the Book.

"Every Wellfleet sand dune, every breeze and beach and pond, came alive for me in this beautiful, heartbreaking debut about a Milwaukee family’s complicated history with their summer home. Christina Clancy’s characters are so real and flawed, so caught between the darkness and the light, that they step right off the page, and you won’t rest until you know what becomes of them." —Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions and The Islanders

"From the first pages of The Second Home, it’s abundantly clear that Christina Clancy has an abiding love for outer Cape Cod, which she conjures in all its bluster and beauty. But as this compelling novel progresses, it also becomes obvious that Clancy has a keen awareness of how secrets can tear apart even the closest of families. Drawn in by the exquisitely-rendered setting, I was riveted by this stirring, family drama." —Karen Dukess, author of The Last Book Party

"Warm, absorbing and thought-provoking.." Shelf Awareness

"A riveting family saga that fans of J. Courtney Sullivan, Cristina Alger, and Maria de los Santos will devour, Clancy's debut novel is a delight. With nostalgia as thick as the scent of coconut-scented sunscreen, The Second Home explores the consequences of emotional decisions and the strength needed to set things right." —Booklist (starred review)

"Transporting...Clancy's beach-ready debut is sure to be a favorite with book clubs." —Publisher's Weekly

"Witty and compassionate, this is the page-turning saga, unfolding in several voices, of two sisters, their estranged adopted brother and the dispute that arises 15 years after their parents' death." —Naples Daily News

"With its fond descriptions of Cape Cod’s land and seascapes and an evocation of a historic house layered with love and secrets, Clancy’s debut clearly has its eye firmly set on the summer-read market." —Kirkus