The House on Oyster Creek

Locals and summer people face off on Cape Cod in Schmidt’s atmospheric romance. As soon as New Yorkers Henry and Charlotte Tradescome inherit Henry’s ancestral estate in Wellfleet, Mass., the much younger Charlotte, wanting a different life for their young daughter, persuades her curmudgeonly husband to move into the house and renovate it with the proceeds from selling off a piece of the property. Charlotte finds it tough to connect with the year-round residents, but she does find an ally in Darryl Stead, an oysterman who farms the waters on the property adjoining the Tradescome house. Through helping Darryl tend his oysters, she falls more in love with the locals’ down-to-earth way of life—and a little in love with Darryl himself. But the yuppie couple who bought the neighboring land from the Tradescomes are less charmed, and a drawn-out legal battle ensues as they attempt to evict the oyster farms along the point. Schmidt (The Bride of Catastrophe) brings the coastal town and its sometimes crusty inhabitants to briny life, and, thankfully, offers a story that’s larger and more satisfying than a simple romance. (June)