East Hope

Table of Contents

 

 

 

“Katharine Davis has written an utterly irresistible novel, suffused with the special light and clarity of Maine. A book about second chances and real love, with characters as complicated as we really are. I couldn't put it down.”

—Lee Smith, author of
The Last Girls
and
On Agate Hill

 

“A warm and gentle journey on the long road between loss and hope. The writing and characters are as crisp and clear as the Maine setting in this moving story about the transforming power of forgiveness and letting go.”

—Karen White, author of
The Memory of Water
and
The House on Tradd Street

 

“
East Hope
is a charming love story, delightfully old-fashioned with a very modern twist. Katharine Davis captures Maine not just as a setting but as the character it is.”

—Lily King, author of
The English Teacher

 

“Katharine Davis's captivating novel of loss and recovery follows a forty-four-year-old woman from a long-settled life into one that is anything but certain. The author's clean prose suits the spare setting. . . . Her keen sensitivity to the people and countryside in that remote place vividly evokes its power to reshape her character's life.”

—Kathleen Maloy, author of
Every Last Cuckoo

“Katharine Davis has created an elegant and compelling tale about loss, love, and, of course, hope. Her characters are rich, her story is gripping, and her prose beautiful and effortless.”

—Joanne Rendell, author of
The Professors' Wives' Club

 

 

“The layered experience and sensibilities of Americans in Paris are captured marvelously in this haunting and evocative novel by Katharine Davis. Reminiscent of William Maxwell's
The Chateau
,
Capturing Paris
is an impressive debut.”

—Katharine Weber, author of
Triangle

 

“In this graceful and atmospheric first novel, Katharine Davis explores a question that fascinates us all: What if I had chosen differently, when I still had my choices to make? Through Annie's reinvention of herself in a time of flux, we see anew the consequences of deciding to be who we are, and the consequences of questioning all that we have been.”

—Carolyn Parkhurst, author of
Dogs of Babel

 

“In
Capturing Paris
, we meet Annie Reed, poet and wife, navigating through a year of upheaval. Through it all, her adopted city of Paris glows, with its abundance of charm, quirks, and moods, all beautifully captured in Katharine Davis's sensitive observations.”

—Leslie Pietrzyk, author of
A Year and a Day

 

“Dreamy and sentimental, readers with a soft spot for the City of Light will want to give this a look.”

—
Publishers Weekly

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Published by New American Library, a division of
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First published by NAL Accent, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, February 2009

Copyright © Katharine Davis, 2009

Conversation Guide copyright © Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2009
All rights reserved

Epigraph on page ix
Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.:
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983
by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

 

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

 

Davis, Katharine.
East Hope/Katharine Davis.
p. cm.

ISBN : 978-1-101-56497-4

1. Widows—Fiction. 2. Booksellers and bookselling—Fiction. 3. Maine—Fiction. 4. Conduct of life—
Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.A967E17 2009
813'.6—dc22 2008024547

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

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I
would like to thank my agent, Katherine Fausset, for her enthusiasm, support, and quick replies to all my questions. Many thanks to Ellen Edwards, my editor, for her careful reading and wonderful insights. I am fortunate to be able to work with such dedicated women who are both so generous with their time.

Thanks to E. J. Levy, C. M. Mayo, Ann McLaughlin, Carolyn Parkhurst, Leslie Pietrzyk, and Amy Stolls for reading the novel in its early stages and giving me excellent advice.

I am always grateful for the love and support from my family. A very special thanks to my sister Carroll Charlesworth, for her reading and listening to the novel, often on her porch on the Ken-nebec River, and giving me invaluable suggestions. And thanks to my sister Mary Harding, for introducing me to so many beautiful places Down East, and showing me the real Hope, Maine. And, most of all, thanks to my husband, Bob Davis, who is always willing to listen—the greatest editor of all.

—EMILY DICKINSON

C
aroline Waverly wished that she hadn't accepted the invitation for dinner. She glanced again at the street, then pressed the doorbell and waited.

Pete opened the door. “How's my favorite redhead?” He smiled.

Caroline stepped into the air-conditioned house. Pete drew her into a hug, his fingers pressing into her back through the fabric of her raincoat and silk shirt. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, and as they drew apart the scent of his aftershave mixing with a whiff of bourbon reminded her of Harry's funeral. There had been a reception with cocktails after the service.

“It's nice of you to have me.” She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear, feeling its weight more than usual in the humid evening. “I thought you might have given up after my saying no so many times.”

“I'd never give up on you,” he said. After twenty-five years in Washington he hadn't lost his South Carolina drawl.

“I'm not sure I'm up for this,” she said.

“It's just us and the Cummingses.” He slipped Caroline's raincoat from her shoulders and she shivered in the cool air. Her skin was clammy, her coat too warm for the humid evening. The hot weather in Washington—unusual for early May—had taken everyone by surprise.

Caroline's husband, Harry, had died at the beginning of November, exactly six months before. She still found it difficult to be with people—the mere exchange of pleasantries with her neighbors made her feel awkward, as if she didn't know who she was anymore. Forty-four years old and a widow, a fact that still filled her with disbelief. On this May evening, when the world around her was lush in the newness of spring, she felt ancient.

Pete Spencer, Harry's business partner and best friend, and his wife, Marjorie, had invited her to their home. She had been indoors all day, but despite the threat of rain she'd decided to walk to the Spencers' house, less than a mile from her own. The fresh air, she thought, might do her good. Mostly she just needed to get through this day, marking yet another month since her husband's death.