The Opposite Shore by Maryanne Stahl
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2003
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Paperback, 256pp
- ISBN-13: 9780451208668
- ISBN: 0451208668
Synopsis
Which would be worse: losing your husband or your only sister? Rose, a forty-something wife and mother, has never asked herself this question. But one Saturday afternoon, she comes upon her husband, William, and her sister, Anna, locked in a fiery kiss. And the answer to this question rings in her ears: worse still would be to lose one to the other.
Devastated by the betrayal, Rose moves with her teenage daughter to Shelter Island for the summer. As she struggles to build a new life as an artist, Rose grows ever more isolated from her sister and her husband. Until an unexpected storm brings her face to face with the two people she loves and hates the most...
Journal-Constitution, September 7, 2003 - Hal Jacobs
Is it worse to lose your sister or your husband? That's the question Maryanne Stahl poses in The Opposite Shore (New American Library, $12.95 paperback) after a 40-some-thing woman discovers her husband and sister locked in a kiss on her husband's sailboat. Rather than confront William and Anna, Rose moves to a nearby island community with her teenage daughter and rebuilds her life around her emerging painting career.
In alternating chapters, Stahl, a native New Yorker who lives near Atlanta, shows the weight of days and weeks pressing on her characters as a result of their choices. William, an English professor in New Haven, must decide if he should leave everyone behind and accept a one-year post as visiting professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Anna contemplates quitting her job at a nature center to crew on schooners sailing across the Atlantic.
Slowly, a sense of balance returns. And just as a stormy kiss shattered their relationships in the first place, a stormy sea brings everyone back together in an arrangement that no one could have foreseen.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Maryanne Stahl, a former college English teacher and native New Yorker, lives with her husband and son near Atlanta, where she is an artist.
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Opposite Shoreby Anonymous
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March 31, 2004: I thought this was wonderful. I have to say, 'I hated Anna'. Why would someone (a sister) be so, so...stupid? That's not the word I am looking for. Why would she be selfish? There were so many things I blamed her for while reading this. I was amazed that as the story unfolds how my attitude changed and how I could see ALL the sides of the story. I wouldn't of thought I would of been somewhat sympathetic to all of these characters in different ways. I also fell in love with the island. I could smell the ocean and wished I was there. This is an amazing book and I loved feeling apart of this. I didn't find myself asking questions once I was finished...the way I do with so many books. I felt it was complete and very satisfying. I can only say that the relationship these people had was one I would never be able to handle! Great book!
Opposite Shoreby Anonymous
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December 10, 2003: In her second novel, 'The Opposite Shore,' Maryanne Stahl sets up a truly calamitous scenario: Rose discovers her husband and her sister in a romantic embrace. Thrown into the mix is Rose's teenage daughter who falls in love for the first time. Though such a set up could easily lead to soap opera cliche, Stahl's great skill never allows this to happen. Her characters are real and their reactions authentic. Stahl also has a great gift for description particularly of Shelter Island where much of the novel takes place. Indeed, at times I felt as though I were watching a movie: the characters, their actions and surroundings all felt so true and without contrivance. This is a beautiful, powerful novel that raises as many questions about love and forgiveness as it answers.
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