Body Surfing [Paperback]

As usual, Shreve's powerful storytelling pulls you in like a rip tide (MARIE CLAIRE )

Relationships in all their guises are Shreve's thing; she fascinated by what binds us together and flings us apart . . . Like all Shreve's novels, BODY SURFING examines not only the creation but the breakdown of numerous relationships in their different (GLAMOUR )

More heart-wrenching from the queen of the emotional rollercoaster (DAILY MIRROR )

Shreve writes about emotional dramas and she writes about them well . . . [she has] a talent for intense and catastrophic moments . . . If you have to brand something as the perfect beach or comfort read, then this would be it (EVENING STANDARD )

'Emotional upheavals, shifts of loyalty and painful revelations
about the past . . . the Shreve hallmarks are all over this warm,
satisfying novel'

`Shreve's fascinated by what binds us together and flings us apart
. . . This is undoubtedly one of Shreve's finest works yet'

'Shreve's powerful storytelling pulls you in like a rip tide'

The bestselling author of A WEDDING IN DECEMBER returns with a scintillating new novel about a young widow torn between two brothers during one long New England summer

`Her characters are emotionally complex, and their social status
and interaction sharply observed. The storytelling seems leisurely, due to
the vivid but condensed descriptions, yet events move quickly, with
unexpected plot turns . . . Definitely a book for the sun-lounger'

`Elegant, suspenseful and brilliantly depicted'

`The story drew me along so easily . . . This is the first Anita
Shreve book I've read - and I'll definitely come back for more'

At the age of twenty-nine, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to find her footing again, she has answered an advertisement to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards' two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened. With the subtle wit, lyrical language, and brilliant insight into real emotion that has led her to be called 'a supremely elegant anatomist of the human heart' (The Times), Shreve weaves a story about risk, family, and the supreme courage that it takes to love.

Anita Shreve is the author of twelve critically acclaimed and bestselling novels, all published in Abacus paperback.