"Thrilling and finely written" with an ingenious structure, a powerful portrait of truth, deception, and a troubled marriage from the bestselling author (The New Yorker).

Everyone believes that Maureen and Harrold English, two successful New York City journalists, have a happy, stable marriage. It's the early '70s, and no one discusses or even suspects domestic abuse.


But after Maureen suffers another brutal beating, she flees with her infant daughter to a coastal town in Maine. The weeks pass slowly, and just as Maureen settles into her new life and new identity, Harrold reappears, bringing the story to a violent, unforgettable climax.


Nearly nineteen years later, a cache of documents regarding Maureen English is given to her daughter by a journalist. The truth should lie within them, but the papers raise far more questions than they answer...

"Superbly rendered... both touching and troubling. The box-within-a-box structure moves Shreve's subtle and searing book beyond the contemporary horror genre. It creates a kind of double novel." -- Cosmopolitan
"The novel has a thought-provoking twist at the end, and Shreve leaves us with [a] haunting [question]: 'Who could ever know where a story had begun?'" -- The Washington Post Book World
"Her elegiac, portentous prose provides effective pacing... insightful and moving." -- Publishers Weekly
"A superbly crafted, intelligently written exploration of the complicities of an abusive relationship... Highly recommended." -- Booklist (starred review)

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• Literature & FictionGenre FictionFamily LifeMarriage & Divorce
• Literature & FictionContemporary FictionLiterary
• Literature & FictionGenre FictionPsychological

• Publication Date: February 27, 2024
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 354 Pages
• File Size: 47 KB