About this Event
Dive into the thrilling world of J. Courtney Sullivan’s new book, The Cliffs, with oceanside views at Cape Arundel Inn & Resort. Savor the summer ambiance from the front lawn with complimentary coffee & tea while learning about Courtney’s book writing process and listening to Courtney share a short reading of her favorite passage. End the evening with a special book signing!
RSVP to let us know you're coming! Your RSVP allows you entrance into the event, complimentary tea & coffee, as well as alerts on important details. Additional beverages will be available for purchase from Ocean Restaurant.
A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers“A stunning achievement, and J. Courtney Sullivan’s best book yet. Sullivan weaves a narrative that’s fascinating and thought-provoking. I literally could not put this book down.”—Ann Napolitano, New York Times best-selling author of Hello Beautiful
On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic
awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.
is the best-selling author of the novels Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, Saints for All Occasions, and Friends and Strangers. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages. Sullivan's writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among many others. In 2017, she wrote the forewords to new editions of two of her favorite classic novels—Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two children.
Moderator is an award-winning memoirist, narrative journalist, editor, and book doula of Poor Your Soul, a hopeful memoir relating to a tale of love and loss.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Cape Arundel Inn & Resort, 208 Ocean Avenue, Kennebunkport, United States
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