The House on Belle Isle
The generosity of Brown’s storytelling style has never been more in evidence than in this first collection of her short fiction.
The generosity of Brown’s storytelling style has never been more in evidence. Each of these seven stories presents a different authentic world — a divorce’s spacious rent-controlled NYC apartment, a widow’s Maryland neighborhood, horseback-riding camp for girls in England, a residential seaside resort in Rhode Island, a remote mountain village in Spain, a tidewater Virginia inn that flourished in the post-Civil War era, and, in the wonderful title story, a most unusual mortuary in Maine. Each one is so vividly created and populated that the experiences for the reader are remarkably novelistic. We’ve been taken inside seven very private places by a guide whose gentle insights are indeed profound.
Hardback, 2002
Published by Algonquin Books / ISBN: 978-1-56512-300-7
Paperback, 2003
Published by Berkley Books / ISBN: 978-0-425-18849-1
“Short stories are often snapshots, brief glimpses into characters’ lives and times. But the seven stories in this collection, each distinct in time and place, are so keenly insightful and well shaped that they seem more novels in miniature than short stories.”
“Rich in image and insight, gracefully written and peopled with characters who quietly demand our loving attention.”
Award
2002 Finalist for the Library of Virginia Book Award