The Second Home: A Novel

Written by Christina Clancy

Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, Christina Clancy's The Second Home is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with, and won't soon forget.

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

After a disastrous summer spent at her family summer home on Cape Cod, seventeen-year-old Ann Gordon was left with a secret that changed her life forever, and created a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael.

Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, leaving Ann and Poppy to decide the fate of the Wellfleet home that's been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is tainted with bad memories. Poppy loves the old saltbox, but after years spent chasing waves around the world, she isn't sure she knows how to stay in one place.

Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long ago summer. Reunited after years apart, these very different siblings must decide if they can continue to be a family—and the house just might be the glue that holds them together.

Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy, and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places we return to again and again. It is about second homes, second families, and second chances.

"Christina Clancy writes with warmth, wit, and wisdom about fantastically human characters. A novel of family and place and belonging." —Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Great Believers

"Christina Clancy writes with empathy and rich detail...Tender and suspenseful, Clancy's debut explores the nature of home as well as the nature of family itself--given and chosen."— Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jun 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781250752352

Christina Clancy

Christina Clancy is the author of Shoulder Season and The Second Home. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Sun magazine, and in various literary journals, including Glimmer Train, Pleiades, and Hobart. She holds a Ph.D. in creative writing.

Reviews for The Second Home

[Emily Lassiter Branch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love a "first novel" that doesn't feel like a first novel, and this one definitely sits comfortably in that category. Family drama, especially teenage drama, is at the heart of The Second Home, and some of it is dark. But I really enjoyed this book - the characters are interesting, if at times maddening, and their stories are funny and heartbreaking and frustrating and feel all too real. And the author's love of two very different places (Cape Cod and Milwaukee) shines through her descriptions of each, each becomes almost another character.
Not long after finishing The Second Home, I saw that it had been optioned to be made into a mini-series, and I hope that happens. It has the potential to be a great one.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

[Tracy Kramp Anderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Having adoption in my life, I found it an interesting read.