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The House at the Edge of Night
Paperback
$19.00
Published on Jun 20, 2017 | 448 Pages
“A perfect summer read [that] brims with heart . . . Don’t be surprised if you keep turning the pages long into the night, spellbound by its magic.”—The Denver Post
A sweeping saga about four generations of a family who live and love on an enchanting island off the coast of Italy—combining the romance of Beautiful Ruins with the magical tapestry of works by Isabel Allende.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Los Angeles Public Library • Kirkus Reviews
“Captivating . . . [Catherine] Banner’s four-generation saga is set on an island near Sicily, where myths of saints get served up with limoncello at the Esposito family’s bar. . . . The island is fictional, but consider this dreamy summer read your passport.”—People
“A lusty page-turner that weaves romance, rivalry and the intricacies of family expectations into one glorious tale.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
Castellamare is an island far enough away from the mainland to be forgotten, but not far enough to escape from the world’s troubles. At the center of the island’s life is a café draped with bougainvillea called the House at the Edge of Night, where the community gathers to gossip and talk. Amedeo Esposito, a foundling from Florence, finds his destiny on the island with his beautiful wife, Pina, whose fierce intelligence, grace, and unwavering love guide her every move. An indiscretion tests their marriage, and their children—three sons and an inquisitive daughter—grow up and struggle with both humanity’s cruelty and its capacity for love and mercy.
Spanning nearly a century, through secrets and mysteries, trials and sacrifice, this beautiful and haunting novel follows the lives of the Esposito family and the other islanders who live and love on Castellamare: a cruel count and his bewitching wife, a priest who loves scandal, a prisoner of war turned poet, an outcast girl who becomes a pillar of strength, a wounded English soldier who emerges from the sea. The people of Castellamare are transformed by two world wars and a great recession, by the threat of fascism and their deep bonds of passion and friendship, and by bitter rivalries and the power of forgiveness.
Catherine Banner has written an enthralling, character-rich novel, epic in scope but intimate in feeling. At times, the island itself seems alive, a mythical place where the earth heaves with stories—and this magical novel takes you there.
Praise for The House at the Edge of Night
“A gorgeous, sweeping story set over four generations . . . calls to mind Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Beautiful Ruins.”—Interview
“Like pictures of a childhood summer, or a half-forgotten smell, this book is sweet and heady with nostalgia . . . [and] comforting as a quilt.”—NPR
“Rich and immersive, this book will take you away.”—Vox
“A masterful piece of storytelling, infused with the miraculous (both in stories and in everyday life) while maintaining the difficult balance between the explainable versus the inexplicable . . . captivating and beautifully rendered.”—Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge
A sweeping saga about four generations of a family who live and love on an enchanting island off the coast of Italy—combining the romance of Beautiful Ruins with the magical tapestry of works by Isabel Allende.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Los Angeles Public Library • Kirkus Reviews
“Captivating . . . [Catherine] Banner’s four-generation saga is set on an island near Sicily, where myths of saints get served up with limoncello at the Esposito family’s bar. . . . The island is fictional, but consider this dreamy summer read your passport.”—People
“A lusty page-turner that weaves romance, rivalry and the intricacies of family expectations into one glorious tale.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
Castellamare is an island far enough away from the mainland to be forgotten, but not far enough to escape from the world’s troubles. At the center of the island’s life is a café draped with bougainvillea called the House at the Edge of Night, where the community gathers to gossip and talk. Amedeo Esposito, a foundling from Florence, finds his destiny on the island with his beautiful wife, Pina, whose fierce intelligence, grace, and unwavering love guide her every move. An indiscretion tests their marriage, and their children—three sons and an inquisitive daughter—grow up and struggle with both humanity’s cruelty and its capacity for love and mercy.
Spanning nearly a century, through secrets and mysteries, trials and sacrifice, this beautiful and haunting novel follows the lives of the Esposito family and the other islanders who live and love on Castellamare: a cruel count and his bewitching wife, a priest who loves scandal, a prisoner of war turned poet, an outcast girl who becomes a pillar of strength, a wounded English soldier who emerges from the sea. The people of Castellamare are transformed by two world wars and a great recession, by the threat of fascism and their deep bonds of passion and friendship, and by bitter rivalries and the power of forgiveness.
Catherine Banner has written an enthralling, character-rich novel, epic in scope but intimate in feeling. At times, the island itself seems alive, a mythical place where the earth heaves with stories—and this magical novel takes you there.
Praise for The House at the Edge of Night
“A gorgeous, sweeping story set over four generations . . . calls to mind Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Beautiful Ruins.”—Interview
“Like pictures of a childhood summer, or a half-forgotten smell, this book is sweet and heady with nostalgia . . . [and] comforting as a quilt.”—NPR
“Rich and immersive, this book will take you away.”—Vox
“A masterful piece of storytelling, infused with the miraculous (both in stories and in everyday life) while maintaining the difficult balance between the explainable versus the inexplicable . . . captivating and beautifully rendered.”—Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge
Author
Catherine Banner
Growing up I always loved stories and writing. When I was little one of my favourite games was to staple together sheets of paper and make them into a book with stories and pictures, and later I spent hours after school writing stories. One of the first books that captured my imagination was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis–I felt like I could believe in the story even though it was extraordinary and magical. But I think the book I most admired when I was growing up was To Kill a Mockingbird. Reading writing at its best and most honest was one of the things that most inspired me to want to write myself. I think The Eyes of a King really began with the voice of the narrator, Leo. It came to me so clearly that I wanted to write it down and try and capture that voice somehow. Most of the other characters and settings emerged from that. People have asked me why I wrote a story set in an alternative world. I think all writers are describing parallel worlds in a way because writing is often about how to find a new way of seeing things, so you can turn something familiar into another country and then people can see it again as if it’s for the first time. Although a lot of the ideas and characters for The Eyes of a King came to me easily, the challenge is always to find the most honest way of putting them into words. I think that will always be my main challenge, and what is at the heart of writing for me. I was at school when I was working on The Eyes of a King, so I wrote in any available time I had–sometimes I was even noting down a few sentences at the back of the class or in between lessons so as not to forget them. I think that was a good way to learn to write; it means everything you put down on paper has to be thought out first. Even now, I make up a lot of the story without putting pen to paper, and I can usually see the characters clearly before I write anything down. I left school last summer, and have spent the last year as a full-time writer, finishing off the second book in the trilogy and starting on the third. I don’t work to a set routine–I write best late at night and redraft best in the mornings so it depends what stage a story is at. I’m hoping to go to university in September, so I will have a different routine again for finishing off the final book in the trilogy. I started The Eyes of a King just after I turned 14. It was sometimes a challenge to balance writing with my other commitments, but I don’t think you are ever too young to start writing if you have a story you want to tell. I haven’t been a writer for that long, and I’m still learning all the time. But the most important thing that I try to do is to write about characters that I really care about, and leave out anything that doesn’t come from the heart.
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