From Publishers Weekly
Rice (Follow the Stars Home; Dream Country) brings her signature sensitivity to this beautifully textured summertime read. Famed artist Hugh Renwick is an adulterous alcoholic who is touched by genius. Long after his death, his wife and three daughters struggle with his oversized legacy and the damage left in his wake. Skye, the youngest, drinks to numb the pain of an abusive marriage and to squelch the memories of a past mistake on a hunting trip with her father, she accidentally shot a man. Meanwhile, the eldest sister, Caroline, hides her vulnerability behind a shell of brittle competence. The family's delicate balance shifts forever when treasure salvager Joe Connor arranges a dive in the waters near their home. Linked to the Renwicks by a tragedy that occurred when he was just a child, Joe helps Skye get sober, melts the ice in Caroline's heart and heals his own scars in the process. As always, Rice excels at evoking the strong but contradictory emotions that both bind and divide families. In her capable hands, what could have been a superficial glitz-and-glamour story of affluence, death and fame rings with truth and warmth. With its crisp New England ambiance and delicate prose, her latest is a lovely celebration of sisterhood, summer and survival.
From Booklist
The daughters of hard-drinking, womanizing, Hemingwayesque artist Hugh Renwick are traumatized by two bloody deaths. When she was five years old, Caroline was standing next to the husband of Hugh's mistress when he shot himself. Intent on protecting his girls, Hugh taught them to hunt and fish, bringing about the second devastating death when Skye shot and killed a young man thinking he was a deer. Years later Skye, a talented sculptor, is an alcoholic and an abused wife. Caroline, who has never married, runs an inn that caters to an artsy crowd. Her life is turned upside down when Dr. Joe Conner, a treasure hunting oceanographer and the son of the man who committed suicide, turns up. As a girl she had felt a deep connection to him, and now they must struggle to make peace with the past. Rice, usually published in hardcover, does a masterful job of telling this powerful story of love and reconciliation. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
