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The Guest Book Mass Market Paperback – March 9, 2021
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Instant New York Times Bestseller
Longlisted for Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
2020 New England Society Book Award Winner for Fiction
“The Guest Book is monumental in a way that few novels dare attempt.” ―The Washington Post
The thought-provoking new novel by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Blake
An exquisitely written, poignant family saga that illuminates the great divide, the gulf that separates the rich and poor, black and white, Protestant and Jew. Spanning three generations, The Guest Book deftly examines the life and legacy of one unforgettable family as they navigate the evolving social and political landscape from Crockett’s Island, their family retreat off the coast of Maine. Blake masterfully lays bare the memories and mistakes each generation makes while coming to terms with what it means to inherit the past.
- Print length576 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFlatiron Books
- Publication dateMarch 9, 2021
- Dimensions4.29 x 1.18 x 7.54 inches
- ISBN-101250781566
- ISBN-13978-1250781567
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Editorial Reviews
Review
#1 Indie Next Pick
One of the Best Books of May: Entertainment Weekly, Refinery29, PopSugar, Bookish, BBC, Chicago Review of Books, Real Simple, Goodreads
“Thought-provoking and propulsive…Welcome to old money, new heartbreak, big secrets, and the kind of mouthwatering picnics nobody packs in real life (boiled eggs, tin of sandwiches, bottles of gin). But the North Star of Sarah Blake’s The Guest Book isn’t the Milton family―although they are fascinating, even the ghosts―it’s the Maine island cottage where they spend their summers.” ―The New York Times Book Review
“Beautifully crafted....The Milton family history, rife with secrets and moral failings, including a deep-seated bigotry, is a timely tale of America itself. An enveloping and moving page-turner.” ―People, Book of the Week
“Sarah Blake writes in the historical fiction tradition of someone like Herman Wouk…[She] is an accomplished storyteller, braiding in a large cast of characters and colorful excursions.” ―Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“An American epic in the truest sense…Blake humanely but grippingly explores the heart of a country whose past is based in prejudice.” ―Entertainment Weekly
“Blake masterfully tells the Miltons’ history―racism, prejudice, betrayal, loss, and all―and in the process, captures a slice of American history as well.” ―Real Simple
“Sarah Blake’s latest novel, The Guest Book, is an engrossing epic that charts the course of the Milton family over three generations, from the 1930s to present day. Pertinent issues that have plagued American history like classism, prejudice, and identity are neatly tied in this transcendent novel.” ―BookRiot
“Sarah Blake delivers a juicy multi-generational novel.” ―Chicago Review of Books
“It’s a gorgeous book with a strong sense of place, like Empire Falls....If you’re going to read one book this summer make it this modern-day classic.” ―The Missourian
“Do you ever pick up a book just to check it out and find yourself lost in it an hour later trying to rearrange your life so you can just keep reading? Well that happened to me this week [with The Guest Book].” ―WYPR, Baltimore
“Sarah Blake spins a fascinating epic that touches on privilege and ambition, racism and grief, revealing as much about America’s identity as it does the Miltons.” ―Christian Science Monitor
“There are glimmers of To the Lighthouse in Blake’s lyrical and questing new novel.” ―BBC
“Sarah Blake is such a beautiful writer she can make any world shimmer, but The Guest Book is particularly fascinating―an intergenerational exploration of memory, identity, love, and family loyalty, of what it costs to inherit a name, a place, and a difficult alignment with history. Powerful and provocative storytelling.” ―Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin
“I loved The Guest Book. Sarah Blake has managed the extraordinary feat of writing both an intimate family saga and an ambitious excavation of the subterranean currents of race, class, and power that have shaped America. This is a vivid, transporting novel, written by a master conjuror of time and place.” ―Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle
“Sarah Blake’s powerful, beautifully written story portrays a couple's secret choices that come to haunt succeeding generations. The Guest Book is richly atmospheric and morally compelling in a way that stirs the mind long after the last page.” ―Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky
“Epic and sweeping, without ever leaving behind the personal and profound, The Guest Book is a reminder of what novels do better than anything else. Without losing their specificity, three generations of Milton women reveal something about every family, the secrets and unspoken truths that color everything that happens to us. This is a book you will be dying to talk to someone about.” ―Arthur Phillips, author of The Tragedy of Arthur and Prague
“Breathtaking…Blake saturates each scene with sensuous and emotional vibrancy while astutely illuminating sensitive moral quandaries. Blake deftly interrogates the many shades of prejudice and ‘the ordinary, everyday wickedness of turning away.’ Blake’s brilliant and ravishing novel promises to hit big.” ―Booklist (starred review)
“Spanning three generations of Miltons, The Guest Book deserves a spot on your summer TBR in 2019.” ―Bustle
“The story of the Miltons engages not just with history and politics, but with the poetry of the physical world. This novel sets out to be more than a juicy family saga―it aims to depict the moral evolution of a part of American society. Its convincing characters and muscular narrative succeed on both counts.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This powerful family saga…is potent and mesmerizing.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Blake is a masterful storyteller, whose past novel, The Postmistress, won considerable acclaim. I believe The Guest Book will as well.” ―San Diego Jewish World
“A juicy family saga and an examination of the American elite.” ―Refinery29
Praise for Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress
“Great books give you a feeling that you miss all day until you finally get to crawl back inside those pages again. The Postmistress is one of those rare books. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it.” ―Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help
“Some novels we savor for their lapidary prose, others for their flesh and blood characters, and still others for a sweeping narrative arc that leaves us light-headed and changed; Sarah Blake’s masterful The Postmistress serves us all this and more.” ―Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
“Even readers who don’t think they like historical novels will love this one and talk it up to their friends. Highly recommended for all fans of beautifully wrought fiction.” ―Library Journal, starred review
“Blake captures two different worlds…with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions.” ―Publishers Weekly
“To open Blake’s novel… is to enter a slipstream, so powerful are its velocity, characters, and drama.” ―ALA Booklist, starred review
“The Postmistress belongs in what Gellhorn called ‘the permanent and necessary’ library.” ―Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and Devotion
“Hits hard and pushes buttons expertly…Ms. Blake writes powerfully about the fragility of life….” ―The New York Times
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Flatiron Books (March 9, 2021)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 576 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250781566
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250781567
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.29 x 1.18 x 7.54 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,635,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,739 in World War II Historical Fiction (Books)
- #31,697 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #103,346 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Sarah Blake is the author of the novels Grange House, the New York Times bestseller The Postmistress, and The Guest Book. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, the poet Joshua Weiner, and their two sons.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on May 10, 2019
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To be completely fair, the first several chapters seem to be meandering and not leading to anything particularly momentous, but like most great authors, Sarah Blake is patient and calmly builds her world brick by brick, so slowly and methodically that you don't realize she's walled you in until you're good and stuck. Once the three generational timelines being to gel and loop back to one another, they become more than the sum of their parts... with the more current timeline informing the earlier ones and vice versa. It's very effective the way things are set up and foreshadowed, then eventually revealed in pieces and parts the way life actually seems to. Sometimes you get a good, clear answer to your questions about life and family. Sometimes you just don't. Even worse, sometimes you merely get hints and echoes that only highlight your own lack of knowledge to a more painful degree.
I found not only the language and dramatic narrative to be heart wrenching and emotionally involving, but the underlying themes and morality plays as well, if not more. It's hard to talk about this stuff. Classism, sexism, racism, anti-semitism, where we've been and where we're going, how we are the same and how we are different, what really matters in life, why we're here, duty and honor to family and society, how you exist as a child and a spouse and a parent at the same time, people we lose too soon and feeling like you've been living for so long that you forgot who you used to be. Not to mention what does it mean to be "free" depending on who you are and what path you travel in life. To tackle these issues seriously in any art form can end up coming off as too simplistic... or too complex... or preachy or ill-informed, or any number of a thousand other errors. For me, Sarah Blake absolutely nails it from start to finish, never giving in to established tropes or cliches that usually define the archetypes she molds and shapes throughout The Guest Book.
I'm a child of the 70's so WWII era to the late 60's was before my time, but every page and every word of dialogue just seems utterly real to me and so many of these characters and scenarios will haunt me for some time to come. It's clear about halfway through this book that things are headed for an unpleasant climax, but still... when it arrived, it felt like a punch in the gut. I was so invested in these people and pulling for them that when their lives took turns that seemed all too familiar and real to me I couldn't help but be hopeful, disappointed, devastated, thrilled, surprised and sad.
If you like to live with a good, epic, generational, historical drama and be absorbed into the story, The Guest Book is a really great book to dive into. It is a tender and thoughtful examination of the last several decades of American culture through the viewfinder of one family and the friends, co-workers and associates that surround them. In this family's opposing viewpoints and struggling as cross-purposes, the struggle of humankind is laid bare and examined in minute detail and sweeping arcs. It is by turns, breathtaking, depressing, inspiring and head shakingly frustrating. So many echoes of our current socio-political landscape are familiar here.
About the only caveat I can offer is that you probably shouldn't read this book if you are depressed or prone to getting down from reading sad books. This one IS sad, but in my opinion, it's sad in the best way possible. Sometimes I think "sad" can be a synonym for "realistic." This book is both, It doesn't try to varnish over the great truths of being a human. It just shows humans going through their daily dance of trying to figure out the biggest questions in their individual lives... living, loving, fighting, disagreeing, changing their minds, refusing to change, trying to change the world and having the world change them instead. What more could you want from a book?
Top reviews from other countries
There are some memorable moments here but it’s all a bit obvious and creaking when it comes to the central plot device - especially when that plot (discovered involvement with nazis) is far from original.
It’s an easy read but basically bites off too much to chew. And when it comes to books about decline of great families, this really ain’t no Buddenbrooks.
If I've made this sound like just-another-historical-novel then that is my mistake and don't let it put you off. This is special.