Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve

Fortune's Rocks

Anita Shreve

Poetic prose providing a colourful description of New England in the 1900s. Olympia, age 15, finds romance with John Haskell, an older man. Hard to put this one down!

Extract
Haskell stands unmoving for a moment. And then he steps forward. She thinks he might speak to her. Instead, he lifts her chin high and then higher, so that she is forced to look into his eyes. He holds this pose at its apex, studying her face and then allows his hand, which she is quite certain is hidden from the other's view, to trail under her chin, to her throat. The touch is so brief and soft, it might be a hair floating across the skin.
Parallels
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  • The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier