Staff Pick
I’ve read a number of reviews touting this book as a “beach read,” and though I’m not entirely sure what that means, it may well be. The setting — a seaside Mallorcan resort — is idyllic, the characters sun-kissed and cosmopolitan, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t spark a bit of wanderlust. But for whatever reason, “beach read” also had me expecting something slightly… fluffier? On the contrary, it’s a chaotic, sweeping portrait of the resort’s inhabitants and the ways in which their lives tangle and overlap. It’s a pair of love stories, spanning continents and generations. It’s a sensory Mediterranean feast and a meandering, backwards chronicle towards a pivotal event. I was nowhere near a beach and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A romantic page-turner propelled by the sixty-year secret that has shaped two families, four lovers, and one seaside resort community.
Set against dramatic Mediterranean Sea views and lush olive groves, The Rocks opens with a confrontation and a secret: What was the mysterious, catastrophic event that drove two honeymooners apart so suddenly and absolutely in 1948 that they never spoke again despite living on the same island for sixty more years? And how did their history shape the Romeo and Julietlike romance of their (unrelated) children decades later? Centered around a popular seaside resort club and its community, The Rocks is a double love story that begins with a mystery, then moves backward in time, era by era, to unravel what really happened decades earlier.
Peter Nichols writes with a pervading, soulful wisdom and self-knowing humor, and captures perfectly this world of glamorous, complicated, misbehaving types with all their sophisticated flaws and genuine longing. The result is a bittersweet, intelligent, and romantic novel about how powerful the perceived truth can beas a bond, and as a barriereven if its not really the whole story; and how one misunderstanding can echo irreparably through decades.
Review
"A beautifully crafted love story set against an idyllic backdrop of ocean breezes and lemon groves. Nichols expertly weaves a tale that stretches across decades and generations, giving us a unique and unforgettable cast of characters."—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of
Maine
“A wondrous novel. The Rocks is clearly the odyssey Peter Nichols was born to undertake.” —Richard Russo
“A Mediterranean idyll, a family saga, a mystery. A love story thats as weird as real life, as rich and surprising and tender and affecting. The Rocks is all these things. Like Beautiful Ruins, it reminds me of all the reasons I read novels.”—Jennifer Haigh, Pen/Hemmingway Award-winning author of Faith
About the Author
Peter Nichols has worked in advertising and as a screenwriter and a shepherd in Wales, and he has sailed alone across the Atlantic. He divides his time between Europe and the United States.