The masterful literary debut by Nelle Davy, in which a
woman recounts her family’s deeply troubled and tragic
history as she prepares to return to the once-grand estate
she fled almost two decades earlier.
When New York sculptor
Meredith Pincetti receives a letter from a law firm,
alerting her to the death of her cousin, she is suddenly
confronted by her disturbing past—a past she successfully
escaped and buried seventeen years ago.
Informed that Aurelia, the once-grand Iowa estate and farm
where she was raised, is to be sold at auction to settle
her late cousin’s debts, Meredith resolves to return to her
family homestead and collect the few possessions that
belonged to her parents.
In doing so, Meredith recalls the spectacular rise and
disastrous fall of the Hathaway family beginning with her
grandfather, Cal’s, dreams and ending with his utter
disappointments. We experience her grandmother, Lavinia’s,
iron will and ceaseless machinations to ensure that her
vision of Aurelia comes to pass. As Aurelia thrives,
becoming the largest farm in the county, behind the veneer
things are crumbling. Dissipation, brutality and betrayal
find fertile ground in the next generation of Hathaways.
Seemingly idyllic childhoods precede the exile and return
of Hathaways from multiple generations—including Meredith.
And, as Meredith returns to Aurelia, she is forced to
confront her own role in her family’s tortured fall from
grace. What part did she play in the events that took place
during her adolescence two decades earlier? How does her
festering relationship with her sisters mirror similar
connections between her father’s and grandfather’s
siblings? What secrets did she leave behind when she fled
Iowa for New York?
Though founded and overseen by male Hathaways, it is the
women—Lavinia and her sister-in-law, Piper; Julia, Cal’s
daughter from his first marriage; Meredith and her sisters,
Claudia and Ava—who play pivotal roles in shaping the
events that occur at Aurelia. And, ultimately, it is they
who reveal its unspeakable secrets.