Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 (Top 10)Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2017Indie Next Summer 2018 Pick For Reading GroupsThe haunting tale of a desolate cottage, and the hair-thin junction between this life and the next, from bestselling National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin.After his mother’s death, eleven-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island … mother’s death, eleven-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past. Aunt Charlotte, otherwise a woman of few words, points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she’d moved there thirty years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life. Eventually she was inspired to take up painting so she could capture its utter desolation.
The islanders call it “Grief Cottage,” because a boy and his parents disappeared from it during a hurricane fifty years before. Their bodies were never found and the cottage has stood empty ever since. During his lonely hours while Aunt Charlotte is in her studio painting and keeping her demons at bay, Marcus visits the cottage daily, building up his courage by coming ever closer, even after the ghost of the boy who died seems to reveal himself. Full of curiosity and open to the unfamiliar and uncanny given the recent upending of his life, he courts the ghost boy, never certain whether the ghost is friendly or follows some sinister agenda.
Grief Cottage is the best sort of ghost story, but it is far more than that–an investigation of grief, remorse, and the memories that haunt us. The power and beauty of this artful novel wash over the reader like the waves on a South Carolina beach.
more
This is a very good book about a young orphan and his great aunt. Loved the setting. Very descriptive, interesting tale, always held my interest, couldn’t put it down.
I did have this book and finished reading it. I enjoyed it very much and accidentally deleted it from my collection on Kindle. Sorry that I deleted the wrong book.
Enjoy all Godwin’s brilliant work. This novel was charming.
A charming coming of age story with eccentric lovable characters that exist in the South and southern novels.
I really enjoyed this book even though the story was not as I expected. It is one that isn’t as the blurb describes but so much more. It isn’t just a mystery, or a ghost story, or a love story and yet it is all three.
i mostly enjoyed this story of the young boy who lost his mother and grew up under the care of his great aunt. I skipped one whole chapter that dealt with a drug overdose.
It held my interest I loved the characters
I wish the climax was more fleshed out.
It was a medium scary book….but I ‘d hardly recommend it.
Wonderful read.
I love this book. It is a good story.
A little hard to believe in the deep thought of an 11-year old boy, but an enjoyable story. The supporting characters were quite colorful and brought a lot to the tale.
Deleted it after a couple of chapters. I didn’t like anything about it.
Good characters. Interesting story.
Very interesting psychological development of the characters.
Gail Godwin never disappoints; her character development is extraordinary. This is an interesting, well-written, story about an awkward teenage boy coping with loss and loneliness after the death of his only parent. He struggles to find balance in his relationship with his great aunt, with whom he has been sent to live, wanting perhaps to be perfect, but being ultimately human. He is fascinated with a boy lost in a hurricane years earlier and the ghost he encounters. He needs to find out who his father was but ultimately finds a father-figure in a close male friend of his great aunt.
Loved this story. The characters drew me in and kept me engaged. I didn’t want to put it down.
Really enjoyable
Excellent read, although a couple of repetitive phrases made it feel as if may have developed through a couple of short stories into the lovely novel it is.
This was recommended to me and is not something I’d normally read. However it grew on me in a calm and spooky way.