By the Shore

A young girl and her family come of age in this tender and suspenseful internationally acclaimed debut novel.
 
In this bestselling debut novel “that captures perfectly the hopes and hurts of childhood,” twelve-year-old May lives in a struggling oceanfront bed-and-breakfast run by her loving if distracted single mother, Lucy, who strives to care for her children without forfeiting her own fun and passion (The New York Times). May puts her faith in the things that elude her—an absent father, the London city life left behind, the acceptance of the popular girls who have boyfriends, off-the-rack clothes, and matronly mothers who provide more than tea and toast at mealtimes—and wonders if her life will ever change. When a kindly writer and his stylish editor come to lodge in the weeks before Christmas, opportunities are in the air. But then May’s playboy father, estranged from the family for years, drops in, threatening to upend the delicate new possibilities stirring in all their lives.
 
“Quiet, sophisticated, and sleek,” By the Shore is a crystalline capturing of a modern romance and that fragile, bittersweet world of youth on the cusp of adulthood (Vogue). First-time author and actor “[Craze] gives May a delicate, distinctive voice. . . . [Here] the trials of adolescence dont stand a chance against the absurdity of grown-ups” (Kirkus Reviews).
 
“Remarkable and moving.” —Publishers Weekly