A Stranger's House - by Bret Lott (Paperback)

About the Book

For years, Claire and Tom Templeton have wished for a child--only to be consoled with a charming old Cape Cod house. As Claire works to rebuild the home, she begins to understand its tangled history. Her discovery forces her to reconcile her past and to renew her hope for the future.

Book Synopsis

For a long time, Claire and Tom Templeton have wished in vain for a child. What they have instead is a house, a charming old Cape that is their consolation. In the gray chill of a Massachusetts autumn, the Templetons and two local handymen, loners and eccentrics, work to rebuild the ramshackle home. As the house takes on a new life, Claire begins to understand its tangled history -- and to reconcile her own past and renew her hope for the future.

Review Quotes

The Boston Globe A smooth, uncompromising novel about learning to live with both the defeat of old dreams and the obligation to fashion new ones.

The Los Angeles Times Book Review As in The Man Who Owned Vermont, his widely acclaimed first work of fiction, Bret Lott once again depicts a young couple who struggle with difficulties in their marriage....A Stranger's House lives, breathes -- and is indeed breathtakingly real.

The Milwaukee Journal There is so much good in this book. The author is interested in real life: people who work for a living...and who fumble with some sense of the spirit-life that is brought alive in the murky world of love, marriage, and friendship....Bret Lott creates a character you can care about, one whose life deepens as the book moves forward....rewarding.

The New York Times Some wonderfully imagined moments....characters whose family mystery is Faulknerian, rife with hidden intensity.

Pat Conroy Bret Lott is an important artist....A beautifully crafted novel.

About the Author

Bret Lott is the author of five highly acclaimed novels, The Man Who Owned Vermont, A Stranger's House, Jewel, Reed's Beach, and The Hunt Club, as well as two collections of widely anthologized short stories, A Dream of Old Leaves and How to Get Home, and a memoir, Fathers, Sons, and Brothers. He lives with his wife and two sons near Charleston, South Carolina, and teaches at the College of Charleston and Vermont College.