Requiem for a Summer Cottage — Barbara Lockhart

Set on Maryland's Eastern Shore during the 1970s and '80s, Barbara Lockhart's first novel tells the story of a family living on an isolated farm dealing with the ties of love and pain that bind and set them at odds. Justin, the father, is a divided self, shifting seemingly without cause from exuberance to gloom. His stoic wife, Rosemary, finds his moods incomprehensible, yet is seduced by his love of life and talent for risk-taking, characteristics she sees and prizes in their three children as well. As events spin increasingly out of control, Rosemary finds herself alone in the eye of the storm.

Using multiple viewpoints, Lockhart tracks the Williams family's internal and external struggles in a rural environment, a landscape that often reflects the mood of family members caught in a precarious balance between the extremes of despair and hope. Lockhart's novel is ultimately about the enduring web of family set against the mysteries of personality and fate.