cover image Shorecliff

Shorecliff

Ursula DeYoung. Little, Brown, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-21340-0

DeYoung’s debut novel unfolds as Richard Hatfield’s adult remembrance of the summer he spent with his large extended family in the eponymous estate in Maine when he was 13. The year is 1928, and Richard is the youngest of the many cousins; sexy and mysterious Francesca is the eldest, at 21. Richard gains information via “shameless eavesdropping” and then decides who would be best served by revealing what he’s heard. Betrayal is the name of the game, whether it concerns Uncle Kurt’s lies about hunting or Tom’s time “on the couch of Venus” with a beautiful neighbor, making his devoted cousin Yvette jealous. Most of the book is narrated at a remove by Richard reciting and contextualizing his memories, which are occasionally illustrated by scenes. The reader feels the climactic crisis coming early on, and is exhausted and less than shocked by the time it arrives. DeYoung (A Vision of Modern Science) breaks no new ground in either narrative or style but does evoke the Maine of this era well, with a parade of sensory detail. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Foundry Literary + Media. (July)