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Description edit see section history

A compelling tale of edgy, small-town emotions, lingering obsession, and romantic salvation. Andrew, after many years, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of his childhood friend and beautiful girl next... read more

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Characters/People edit see section history

  • Andrew: Andrew grew up on the outskirts of a small town in a farmhouse next door to Eden Close. He is sensitive and loving.
  • T.j.: T.J. is obsessed with material goods, his house, his car, his trophy wife Didi Hanson. He is impressed by Andrew's job title and his car, Andrew on the other hand is modestly embarassed of his wealth and BMW.
  • Andy: Andrew as a child, known as Andy.
  • Jim: Jim the over devoted father of Eden Close.
  • Sean: Sean, a head-case.
  • Billy: Andrew's seven year old son.
  • Eden: The girl next door, imprisoned in her house for the nineteen years since the 'incident' where she got blinded.
  • Desalvo: A retired police chief who is still puzzled about a murder committed 20 years previously.
  • Martha: Andrew's ex wife who smokes a lot and has anger problems.
  • Edith Close: Edith Close, portreyed as uptight and cruel to her daughter, but it soon transpires she has her reasons.
  • O'brien: Add a description of this character.
  • Didi: T.J.'s trophy wife, ex cheer-leeder.
  • Jayne: Andrew's devoted Assistant from his job back in the city.
  • Geoffrey: Andrew's boss.
  • Mackenzie
  • Reardon
  • Dr. Ryder
Show all 17 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Even though you could love someone as much as he had loved his mother and she him, her only child, you could leave her if you had to. You could even look forward to leaving her.”
    Andrew speaking about leaving for college
  • “With it came the knowledge that the shape of things you had known and trusted as certain could be twisted, overnight, out of recognition.”
  • “It was that her proximity, after all these years, was deeply unsettling, as if a fragment of a dream, a dream he'd thought he lost years ago, had indeed turned out to be real.”
  • “There is light coming into my world, but there is darkness too.”
    Eden
  • “'Then maybe this awful heat will break.' 'I don't want it to break,' she says. 'Why?' 'Because then it will be something else and we'll be different.'”
    Andrew and Eden speaking
  • “We will leave this place and not come back, and in our dreams it will turn to dust.”

First Sentence edit see section history

THE AIR LAY AS HEAVY AS WATER IN THE SQUARE DARK ROOMS of the farmhouse.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Anita Shreve (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Pub
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1989
ISBN: 0-15-127582-3
Page Count: 265

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3569.H7385 E34
  • Dewey: 811.54

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