The House of Tides

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The House of Tides Page 39

by Hannah Richell


  Dan nods. “Do you like her?” he asks.

  She can’t speak. The words stick in her throat. It is too much. Using his immense talent and a lot of patience, Dan has fashioned something beautiful and utterly poignant out of the basest of materials: clay, wax, and metal. The sculpture is perfect; it is the perfect symbol for their future together. Pandora’s box is open. All of life’s evils have already flown out into the world, released to cause their inevitable mischief and pain, but Dora knows it doesn’t matter anymore. She knows that now. Hope remains. While she and Dan are together, the two of them with their beautiful baby girl, and Cassie and Helen, and Richard and Violet, all of them living their large, messy, mixed-up lives, she knows they will have hope. Hope and love. And after all, what more is there to want in life?

  Dora seizes Dan’s hand and raises it to her lips. “She’s absolutely perfect.”

  Then, grinning, she pulls him out of the studio and back into their apartment and their life together, the sound of their laughter trailing behind them all the way.

  Questions for

  Further Discussion

  Several of the female characters have names that come from mythology—Pandora, Cassandra, and Helen. What do their names say about these three women, and about the book? Does it have any commonalities with a classic tragedy? Meanwhile, Alfie, Richard, and Violet have more modern names—why do you think the author chose them?

  The primary setting of THE HOUSE OF TIDES is of paramount importance to the story. Do you think that Clifftops serves as a character in the novel? Why or why not?

  Did you find Helen to be a sympathetic character? Why or why not? Do you think Richard bears more blame than he acknowledges for the erosion of their marriage?

  The Tides are a family with a great number of secrets. Do you think it is ever acceptable to keep secrets in a relationship? When should parents keep secrets from their children? What about the reverse?

  Richell shows us where each of the major characters—Dora, Cassie, Helen, and Richard—have found themselves, with a great attention to sense of place: Richard’s more modern house, Cassie’s pastoral home, Dora’s urban loft, and so on. Which of these environments is the most similar to the one in which you live? Which would you most like to experience?

  Building on the previous question, how does Helen’s relationship with Clifftops change over the course of the novel?

  At the end of the novel, do you believe that the characters have found closure and forgiveness? Who has had the easiest path to it, and who the hardest? Is hard-won closure any more valuable than that which comes easily?

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Dora

  Chapter 2: Helen

  Chapter 3: Dora

  Chapter 4: Cassie

  Chapter 5: Dora

  Chapter 6: Cassie

  Chapter 7: Dora

  Chapter 8: Helen

  Chapter 9: Dora

  Chapter 10: Helen

  Chapter 11: Helen

  Chapter 12: Dora

  Chapter 13: Cassie

  Chapter 14: Dora

  Chapter 15: Dora

  Chapter 16: Helen

  Chapter 17: Dora

  Chapter 18: Helen

  Chapter 19: Dora

  Chapter 20: Cassie

  Epilogue

  Questions for Further Discussion

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2012 by Hannah Richell

  Cover design by Brigid Pearson; cover photos: © SHIGEKI MATSUOKA/amanaimages/Corbis (house) © Joan Kocak/Trevillion Images (hill). Copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Grand Central Publishing

  Hachette Book Group

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  New York, NY 10017

  HachetteBookGroup.com

  twitter.com/grandcentralpub

  Originally published as Secrets of the Tides in the UK by Orion Books in 2012.

  First American ebook edition: July 2013

  Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

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  ISBN 978-1-4555-2108-1

 

 

 


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