Three Story House: A Novel
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9.Toward the beginning of the novel, the cousins decide to think of their year in the house as “their very last year.” In what ways do they make decisions based on this idea? How would you make decisions if you knew the world as you know it was going to end? What risks would you take?
10.Do you think Lizzie’s parents kept secret the information about who her father was to protect Lizzie or to protect themselves? When are children old enough to be told about the complicated histories of their parents?
Read on
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More from Courtney Miller Santo
FOR MORE BOOKS by Courtney Miller Santo check out . . .
THE ROOTS OF THE OLIVE TREE
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Meet the Keller family, five generations of firstborn women—an unbroken line of daughters—living together in the same house on a secluded olive grove in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California.
Anna, the family matriarch, is 112 and determined to become the oldest person in the world. An indomitable force, strong in mind and firm in body, she rules Hill House, the family home she shares with her daughter Bets, granddaughter Callie, great-granddaughter Deb, and great-great-granddaughter Erin. Though they lead ordinary lives, there is an element of the extraordinary to these women: the eldest two are defying longevity norms. Their unusual lifespans have caught the attention of a geneticist who believes they hold the key to breakthroughs that will revolutionize the aging process for everyone.
But Anna is not interested in unlocking secrets the Keller blood holds. She believes there are some truths that must stay hidden, including certain knowledge about her origins that she has carried for more than a century. Like Anna, each of the Keller women conceals her true self from the others. While they are bound by blood and the house they share, living together has not always been easy. And it is about to become more complicated now that Erin, the youngest, is back, alone and pregnant, after two years abroad with an opera company. Her return and the arrival of the geneticist who has come to study the Keller family ignites explosive emotions that these women have kept buried and uncovers revelations that will shake them all to their roots.
Told from varying viewpoints, Courtney Miller Santo’s compelling and evocative debut novel captures the joys and sorrows of family—the love, secrets, disappointments, jealousies, and forgiveness that tie generations to one another.
Click here to buy The Roots of the Olive Tree.
Acknowledgments
Spite House—with its narrow façade and breathtaking view—has been in my imagination as long as I can remember. About ten years ago, I used it as the setting for the first story I wrote after deciding to stop talking about writing and write. And although that story lost its luster quickly, the house remained a glimmering Valhalla and my fingers itched to find the characters who could call Spite House home. Although this book didn’t come as easy as the first, in the end I got it right thanks to the people in my life.
Carrie Feron is a brilliant editor. She trusts the writing process enough to ask questions instead of giving answers. Because of her experience and exceptional intuition, those questions were always exactly what I needed to get me to the point where I could make the story in my head match the one on the page.
I feel so lucky to have landed at William Morrow. They believe in authors like children believe in the Tooth Fairy. Thank you to my tremendous publicity team (Ben Bruton is a genius); and a special thanks to Tessa Woodward, who has moved on to better and brighter, but left me with Nicole Fischer, who knows the answers to questions I forget to ask.
There are not words enough to express my gratitude that Alexandra Machinist exists in the world and is excellent in all the ways I will never be. Your world is beautiful and strange, and I’m glad you are so skilled at being in it. And if there’s someone I want to grow up to be, it is Stephanie Koven. Thank you.
Deepest thanks to Leslie Graff, Patti Meredith, David Williams, and Lindsey George, who read a very early draft of this novel and helped me to find ways to make it better. My writing group remains ever stalwart and ever needed.
Finally, thank you to my husband, who tells me every day that I’m his favorite person in the world. He is more than that to me. He is my only person in this world. And to my children, who in the end everything is for.
Also by Courtney Miller Santo
The Roots of the Olive Tree
Credits
Cover design by Amanda Kain
Cover photograph © by Hudiemm/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THREE STORY HOUSE. Copyright © 2014 by Courtney Miller Santo. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Santo, Courtney Miller.
Three story house : a novel / Courtney Miller Santo. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-06-213054-9 (paperback)—ISBN 0-06-213054-4 (paperback) 1. Cousins—Fiction. 2. Female friendship—Fiction. 3. Dwellings—Remodeling—Fiction. 4. Self-realization in women—Fiction. 5. Memphis (Tenn.)—Fiction. 6. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
EPub Edition June 2014 ISBN 9780062130563
PS3619.A583T57 2014
813'.6—dc23
2014007549
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14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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