Ocean State Libraries

A marked departure from Edith Wharton's usual ironic contemplation of the fashionable New York society to which she herself belonged, Ethan Frome is a sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New England village. The protagonist, Ethan Frome, is a man tormented by a passionate love for his ailing wife's young cousin. Trapped by the bonds of marriage and the fear of public condemnation, he is ultimately destroyed by...

"Haunted and haunting. . . . With fearlessness and humility, in a narrative that flows more artfully than ever between destruction and rebirth, Erdrich has opened herself to possibilities beyond what we merely see—to the dead alive and busy, to the breath of trees and the souls of wolves—and inspires readers to open their hearts to these mysteries as well."— Washington Post Book World

From the author

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A tragic bus accident has devastating repercussions for two families from opposite sides of the tracks of a tiny New England paper milling town.

Deputy Ripley Todd is happy with her life except for the special powers that confuse and frighten her.

Follows the lives of a group of couples in an upperclass Boston suburb through their parties, recreations, child neglect, and wife-swapping.

Anne Davis has returned to the house where she grew up, trading her glamorous Manhattan lifestyle for a harsh winter on a wind-whipped New England island. Her marriage has crumbled in the wake of a tragic accident. Now she has returned to the home on Salt Whistle Raod that has always meant shelter, security, family and love. When she awakens one snowy night to a fire that roars through the old house, Anne escapes—but runs back into the blaze to...

New England naturalist painter Aunt Fanny Adams had only begun painting in her eighties, but sales of her work supported the Shinn Corners village school, the local church, and most of the other village institutions. When she is found murdered, the village people focus their rage on a wandering tramp. Only quick thinking by Judge Shinn and houseguest, Major Johnny Shinn, prevents a planned lynching. Judge Shinn sets up a trial by jury involving all...

"The small New England town of Coventry is haunted by its memories of a deadly winter... in which loved ones were lost, families torn apart, and a town buried in a terrible blizzard. Now, twelve years later, the people plagued by their memories of that storm are haunted once again as a new storm approaches, promising to wreak new havoc. Old ghosts trickle back, and this storm will prove even more terrifying and deadly than the last. With richly textured...

This is a story about marriage and the friendship of Meri, newly married and pregnant and Delia, the wife a senator who is chronic infidelity is well know in Washington circles.