Central Skagit Library District

This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks' and the Hamilton's--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworking father. Cal is a rebellious loner, sternly rejected...

Lucy Honeychurch, a young middle-class girl, travels with her spinster cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, to Florence where they are on holiday at an Italian pension set up specifically for vacationers from Great Britain. There Lucy meets Mr. Emerson and his son, George, whom she encounters quite unexpectedly on walks and carriage rides. George and Lucy have unsuspected, intimate talks which happen without any intention of hypothetical conclusion. George...

'The sea, the sea' - Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected...