Courtney Miller Santo delves into themes of identity and family relationships, exploring the complexities of human connection. Her style, deeply rooted in Southern traditions, brings characters and settings to life with vivid descriptions. Through her literary endeavors, she seeks to uncover universal truths about love, loss, and the search for belonging. Her work invites readers to contemplate the profound emotions and interconnectedness that shape our lives.
The Keller family, consisting of five generations of firstborn women, shares life in a secluded olive grove in Northern California. Their unique bond is shaped by shared experiences, traditions, and the challenges that come with their legacy. The story explores themes of family, heritage, and the strength of women across time, highlighting how their interconnected lives influence one another while navigating personal struggles and triumphs.
Struggling with unmet expectations as they approach thirty, cousins Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel escape to an unusual three-story house perched above the Mississippi River. This retreat serves as a backdrop for their introspective journey, where they confront their pasts and the weight of their aspirations, ultimately seeking solace and understanding in their friendship.
"Renovating an historic Memphis house together, three cousins discover that their spectacular failures in love, career, and family provide the foundation for their future happiness in this warm and poignant novel from the author of The Roots of the Olive Tree that is reminiscent of The Postmistress, The Secret Life of Bees, and Kristin Hannah's novels. Nearing thirty and trying to avoid the inescapable fact that they have failed to live up to everyone's expectations and their own aspirations, cousins and childhood best friends Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel seek respite in an oddly-shaped, three-story house that sits on a bluff sixty feet above the Mississippi. As they work to restore the almost condemned house, each woman faces uncomfortable truths about their own failings. Lizzie seeks answers to a long-held family secret about her father in her grandmother's jumble of mementos and the home's hidden spaces. Elyse's obsession with an old flame leads her to a harrowing mistake that threatens to destroy her sister's wedding, and Isobel's quest for celebrity tempts her to betray confidences in ways that would irreparably damage her two cousins. Told in three parts from the perspective of each of the women, this sharply observed account of the restoration of a house built out of spite, but filled with memories of love is also an account of friendship and how relying on each other's insights and strengths provides the women a way to get what they need instead of what they want"-- Provided by publisher
The novel explores the intricate dynamics of family relationships, delving into the complex interplay of love, secrets, and disappointments that connect generations. Through a poignant narrative, it examines themes of jealousy and forgiveness, offering a rich portrayal of the emotional tapestry that binds family members together.
