The House at the Edge of Night

A sweeping saga about four generations of a family who live and love on an enchanting Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy—combining the romance of Beautiful Ruins with the magical tapestry works of Isabel Allende.
 
Castellamare is an island far enough away from the mainland to be forgotten, but not far enough to escape from the world's troubles. At the center of the island's life is a café draped with bougainvillea called the House at the Edge of Night, where over generations the community gathers to gossip and talk. Amedeo Esposito, a foundling from Florence, finds his destiny on the island with his beautiful wife, Pina, whose fierce intelligence, grace, and unwavering love guide her every move. An indiscretion tests their marriage, and their children—three sons and an inquisitive daughter—grow up and struggle with both humanity's cruelty and its capacity for love and mercy.
 
Spanning nearly a century, through secrets and mysteries, trials and sacrifice, this beautiful and haunting novel follows the lives of the Esposito family and the other islanders who live and love on Castellamare: a cruel count and his bewitching wife, a priest who loves scandal, a prisoner of war turned poet, an outcast girl who becomes a pillar of strength, a wounded English soldier who emerges from the sea. The people of Castellamare are transformed by two world wars and a great recession, by the threat of fascism and their deep bonds of passion and friendship, and by bitter rivalries and the power of forgiveness, in this richly written and powerful novel.
 
Catherine Banner has written an enthralling, character-rich novel, epic in scope but intimate in feeling. At times, the island itself seems alive, a mythical place where the earth heaves with stories—and this magical novel takes you there.

Advance praise for The House at the Edge of Night
 
“My admiration for The House at the Edge of Night is boundless. Catherine Banner's writing is preternaturally mature, distinct, clear, and strikingly beautiful. As I read on, I felt the resonance of classic legend and myth, the stuff of Homer, building around this world that is timeless, yet utterly its own. A gorgeous, deeply moving novel of life across a sweep of time and generations.”—Peter Nichols, author of The Rocks

“To the long, eclectic tradition of the island novel, Catherine Banner has made a sparkling addition. She has created a vast world unto itself of the fictional island of Castellamare, intricately compressed and marvelously textured. Her storytelling evokes the rural tales of the great Sicilian author Giovanni Verga, the Abruzzian Ignazio Silone, and the multifarious Italian Folktales compiled by Italo Calvino. But this is very much a modern story by a young Englishwoman, beautifully written, spanning over a century, framing and interweaving the fates of countless characters while conjuring a fictional chronicle that merges with, and enhances, history as we know it—a feat reserved for the most ingenious and intuitive of writers. That this is Catherine Banner's first adult novel makes it all the more remarkable.”—Nicholas Christopher