The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan
Bestselling author J. Courtney Sullivan returns to the setting of her beloved novel MAINE in THE CLIFFS, a tale of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming.
As a teenager, Jane Flanagan was obsessed with an abandoned Victorian Mansion overlooking the sea. Twenty years later, she returns home to Maine after a devastating error in judgment that threatens both her marriage and her career as a Harvard archivist. The new owner, Genevieve, has gutted the mansion and re-landscaped the property into a monstrosity that Jane barely recognizes – a home lacking the Victorian charm of years past into one that could be lifted from the pages of Architectural Digest. When Genevieve discovers that Jane is a historian, she asks her to dig into the history of the house and its previous inhabitants. She is convinced that the house is haunted – and that the spirit that resides there either has a past conflict to resolve or a present conflict with Genevieve herself.
Sullivan layers her story with the history of the Shakers, the indigenous people who originally inhabited the land, and the more recent inhabitants – all who experienced trauma and loss within the walls of the mansion or on the land it occupies.
Spanning ages and lives – from 1850 to 1960 and beyond – Sullivan’s novel asks whether we can ever correct the sins of the past, what happens to us after we die, and addresses critical, contemporary issues such as how do we correct the historical record so that it reflects the lived histories of diverse races, genders, and classes?
THE CLIFFS is a thought-provoking novel. Highly recommended for fans of historical and contemporary fiction.
This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my interview with J. Courtney Sullivan on Superior Reads on July 25 at 7pm and the 27th at 6am.
