Cape May

'WHAT A TREAT. GLAMOROUS AND NOSTALGIC AND VERY SEXY, CAPE MAY IS A NOVEL ABOUT MARRIAGE, LUST, SHABBY SEASIDE TOWNS AND LOTS OF GIN. BRILLIANTLY UNSETTLING - ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT STAYS WITH YOU' Paula Hawkins Cape May, New Jersey. September 1957. Newlyweds Henry and Effie arrive from Georgia for their honeymoon. It's the end of the summer season, and as they tentatively discover each other - walking on the deserted beach overlooking the vast, darkening Atlantic, clumsily making love in the dusty rooms of a distant relative's house - they begin to realize that everyday married life might be disappointingly different from their happy-ever-after fantasy. Just as they get ready to cut the trip short and leave Cape May, a light goes on in one of the houses on their street. In that one moment their destiny is altered forever. A glamorous set suddenly disrupt their newly-formed married life and sweep them up into their drama: there's Clara, a beautiful socialite who feels her youth slipping away; Max, a wealthy playboy and Clara's lover; and Alma, Max's aloof and mysterious half-sister, to whom Henry is irresistibly drawn. The empty town becomes their playground, and as they sneak into abandoned summer homes, go sailing, walk naked under the stars, marvel at the power and beauty of their bodies, experiment with love and sex, and drink massive amounts of gin, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with consequences that reverberate through the rest of their lives.