By the Shore

A young girl and her family come of age in this tender and suspenseful internationally acclaimed debut novel. In this bestselling debut novel "that captures perfectly the hopes and hurts of childhood," twelve-year-old May lives in a struggling oceanfront bed-and-breakfast run by her loving if distracted single mother, Lucy, who strives to care for her children without forfeiting her own fun and passion (The New York Times). May puts her faith in the things that elude her—an absent father, the London city life left behind, the acceptance of the popular girls who have boyfriends, off-the-rack clothes, and matronly mothers who provide more than tea and toast at mealtimes—and wonders if her life will ever change. When a kindly writer and his stylish editor come to lodge in the weeks before Christmas, opportunities are in the air. But then May's playboy father, estranged from the family for years, drops in, threatening to upend the delicate new...