Description
Freya Lyell is struggling to move on from her sister Stella’s death five years ago. Visiting the bewitching Byrne Hall, only a few miles from the scene of the tragedy, she discovers a portrait of Stella—a portrait she had no idea existed, in a house Stella never set foot in. Or so she thought.Driven to find out more about her sister’s secrets, Freya is drawn into the world of Byrne Hall and its owners: charismatic artist Cory and his sinister, watchful mother. But as Freya lingers in this mysterious, centuries-old house, her relationship with Cory crosses the line into obsession and the darkness behind the locked doors of the estate threatens to spill out.In prose as lush and atmospheric as Byrne Hall itself, Elizabeth Brooks weaves a simmering, propulsive tale of art, sisterhood, and all-consuming love: the ways it can lead us toward tenderness, nostalgia, and longing, as well as shocking acts of violence.
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"Simmering and mysterious, The Whispering House trades in secrets: of a son haunted by his family's unsettling past, and a young woman uncovering the truth about her sister's last days. On a warm summer's day by the English seaside, twenty-three-year-oldFreya spies a pale, pillared house: Byrne Hall. Before she can think twice, she's stepped inside to an ornate foyer featuring a striking portrait that evokes her late sister, Stella, whose untimely fall from a cliff years before still haunts Freya and her father. When an inexplicable longing leads her back to Byrne Hall several weeks later, she meets Cory, a handsome and enigmatic young artist who remains in the house to care for his ailing mother. Though she plans to stay for just a few days, Freya finds herself extending her stay longer and longer, driven to remain not just by Byrne Hall itself, but this strange mother-and-son pair who inhabit it. Freya's decision to linger in this mysterious, centuries-old house sets off an unexpected chain of events that will lead her to question who she is, and what really happened to Stella. As the days stretch on, a kind of shadow communication with her late sister begins as Freya explores the estate, and the relationships that Stella formed there. In prose as lush and atmospheric as Byrne Hall itself, Elizabeth Brooks weaves a simmering, propulsive tale in The Whispering House of art, sisterhood, and all-consuming love: the ways it can lead us towards tenderness, nostalgia, and longing, as well as shocking acts of violence"--
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