by RussellBanks (Author)
July, 1936. It is the height of the Depression, and the looming threat of Fascism is spreading across Europe. And somewhere high above the Adirondack mountains, beautiful and doomed, floats the vast Hindenburg airship. Vanessa Cole is the stunning debutante daughter of the famous brain surgeon Carter Cole. Notorious for her scandalous affairs with the rich and famous, she has returned to her parents' home in upstate New York after the collapse of her second marriage. Rumours are rife as the family gathers to celebrate the 4th of July at the rustic but elegant Adirondack Camp deep in their privately-owned wilderness, The Reserve. This scene of luxury and privilege is disturbed by the arrival of the internationally famous painter and political radical, Jordan Groves, who brazenly lands his bi-plane on the pristine Second Lake. Groves, celebrated as much for his leftist politics, Hemingwayesque exploits and romantic conquests as for his art, is easy prey for Vanessa Cole's blend of electrifying charm and destructiveness. But in order to protect his two young sons and his marriage, already made fragile by his years of compulsive infidelity, he must try to keep his distance. Especially when it becomes clear that Vanessa carries a deeply scarring family secret. The Reserve explores what happens when powerful personalities from opposite ends of the social spectrum begin to break the rules. Part scandalous love story, part murder mystery, it is a gripping, exhilarating novel from one of America's finest writers.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 05 May 2008
ISBN 10: 0747593671
ISBN 13: 9780747593676
Book Overview: Banks is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Extensive media coverage assured - this is his most commercial novel to date For fans of Snow Falling on Cedars, The Bridges of Madison County and the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald