Hill Towns: Novel, A

By Anne Rivers Siddons

Hill Towns is a classic novel of remarkable emotional power, insight, and sensitivity from Anne Rivers Siddons, whose books live on the New York Times bestseller list and in the hearts of millions of her adoring fans. One of the acknowledged masters of contemporary Southern fiction—the author of such phenomenally popular works as Nora, Nora; Outer Banks, Islands; and Sweetwater Creek—Siddons carries the reader from the mountains of Tennessee to the breathtaking Tuscany countryside as she brilliantly chronicles the unraveling of a marriage. Pat Conroy (The Prince of Tides) says, “She ranks among the best of us,” and Hill Towns is the proof.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061746802

Anne Rivers Siddons

Anne Rivers Siddons is the New York Times bestselling author of 19 novels that include Nora, Nora, Sweetwater Creek, Islands, Peachtree Road, and Outer Banks. She is also the author of the nonfiction work John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.

Reviews for Hill Towns

[kdabra4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was absolutely amazing and enthralling. Cat, the main character, has never once left her home town on The Mountain in TN, until she and her husband decide to take a life-changing trip to Italy. Siddons' descriptions of the people and places encountered along the way are so vivid that I could "see" very detailed pictures of them all in my mind. Now I not only want to learn to speak Italian, I want to go there too.

[moonshineandrosefire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A single traumatic event from her childhood has irrevocably marked Catherine Gaillard's adulthood, striking her with an almost unconquerable fear of leaving her cloistered mountaintop home in Tennessee for thirty years. But now, in an effort to shake her fears and put the incident behind her, Catherine is embarking on a life-changing vacation to Italy with her husband Joe. As they make their way across the beautiful countryside of Tuscany with two other couples, Cat and Joe soon find themselves being pulled in separate directions, and the fabric of their marriage begins to unravel. And a journey that began as a carefree tour crosses unexpected boundaries, carrying them into the heart of their relationship, becoming the ultimate test of their love.I truly did enjoy this book. It was a little slow to get into at first but I give it an A+!

[bjmitch_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel is a book sale find from several years ago. I finished reading it yesterday and still cannot really make up my mind about it.My main problem with it is that I didn't like one single character in the book. The protagonist, Catherine (Cat) Compton Gaillard, lives on a mountain in Tennessee near famed Trinity College. Her father is a teacher there and her mother is from a poor family, and they are killed in a grotesque accident on a bridge down off the mountain. Five-year-old Cat is sleeping in their car near the bridge so she is unhurt. From that moment she believes she is only safe on the mountain, and refuses to leave, even to live with her wealthy Compton grandparents. She instead insists on staying with her mad maternal grandmother and her grandfather who is a janitor at Trinity. She marries Joe, a teacher, and they have one child, a daughter who is born blind. Cat's entire life revolves around her home and the mountain. Finally she seeks counseling, and when Joe's protege and his girlfriend decide to get married in Rome, Joe and Cat accept their invitation to go to Rome for the wedding and then accompany the newlyweds on their honeymoon through Tuscany.It ends up with a group of seven people traveling together and the discord the journey evokes. They drink so much I felt half drunk throughout. One of the women keeps going off after a man, any man, so mostly they are three couples, but three more different couples you couldn't find.All this time Cat has occasional panic attacks, but stubbornly continues to wander off alone. I just couldn't understand her, so most of the time I felt like shaking her silly. At the same time, the story seems to be leading up to an event and I couldn't stop reading because I needed to find out how the trip eventually ended. So I must admit it was quite a story even though it drove me crazy more than once. The characterizations are masterful, the description of the places they all go is enough to make me want to pack a bag and go, now. Siddons is an astonishing writer, but I do wish I had been able to like at least one character.