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The Guest Book Spiral-Bound | 2020-05-05
Sarah Blake
★★★☆☆+ from 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
$19.79
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The Guest Book
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The instant New York Times bestseller now in paperback--The Hours meets the Forsyte Saga, about a love affair between the daughter of a great American family and an upstart trying to break into polite society.
A novel about past mistakes and betrayals that ripple throughout generations, The Guest Book examines not just a privileged American family but a privileged America. It is a literary triumph.
The Guest Book follows three generations of a powerful American family, a family that "used to run the world."
And when the novel begins in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton appear to have everything--perfect children, good looks, a love everyone envies. But after a tragedy befalls them, Ogden tries to bring Kitty back to life by purchasing an island in Maine. That island, and its house, come to define and burnish the Milton family, year after year after year. And it is there that Kitty issues a refusal that will haunt her till the day she dies.
In 1959 a young Jewish man, Len Levy, will get a job in Ogden's bank and earn the admiration of Ogden and one of his daughters, but the scorn of everyone else. Len's best friend, Reg Pauling, has always been the only black man in the room--at Harvard, at work, and finally at the Miltons' island in Maine.
An island that, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, this last generation doesn't have the money to keep. When Kitty's granddaughter hears that she and her cousins might be forced to sell it, and when her husband brings back disturbing evidence about her grandfather's past, she realizes she is on the verge of finally understanding the silences that seemed to hover just below the surface of her family all her life.
An ambitious novel that weaves the American past with its present, The Guest Book looks at the racism and power that has been systemically embedded in the US for generations.
Publisher: Macmillan
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 512 pages
ISBN-10: 1250110270
Item Weight: 0.9 lbs
Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.5 x 8.3 inches
Customer Reviews: 3 out of 5 stars 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
"Wow. She is a master. This is the rare novel that makes me thankful for my insomnia, as I got to spend many hours in the middle of the night with the Miltons and their world. It is a sort of coming-of-age story for the country, but one without an easy end--the journey continues." --Chris Morrow, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
"It is easy to be swept away with the beauty of Sarah Blake's writing, enthralled by her fully realized characters and the intricacies of their lives. Then it hits you: this is a terrific story. Compelling without being rushed, multifaceted without losing its heart, its expansiveness perfectly balanced with intimacy, you will savor every page of The Guest Book." --Luisa Smith, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
"The Guest Book is spectacular--it's just SO good. From the very first chapter you are sucked into this epic family story of privilege, history, prejudice, secrets, love, and loss. It comes at you in waves, crashing and subsiding, surging you forward and pulling you back, and never letting you go. Sarah Blake's finesse carries you through generations with such splendid depth and nuance. Master storytelling at its best!" --Julie Slavinsky, Warwick's, La Jolla, CA
"I have never had such an immediate shock to the senses as the first twenty-five pages of The Guest Book. From that electrifying event, the story winds around itself in fascinating tendrils. This novel turns the historical family genre on its head with the present rewriting the past--the honest, often brutal, portrayal of the patrician Milton family is as surprising as it is absorbing." --Emmy Carmichael, A Cappella Books, Atlanta, GA
"Sarah Blake's The Guest Book is a reminder to us all that judging history comes with the luxury of hindsight. It's true, hindsight may indeed be twenty-twenty but in Sarah Blake's new novel the nuances, personalities, and tribulations of the day help define how decisions that still shape our world today came to pass. A thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable read; an epic contemplation of how decent people can make misguided decisions." --Jamie Fiocco, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC
"A multi-generational story with real and memorable characters, it's also a commentary on time and history and our relationship to it. Sarah Blake is a master storyteller and readers are going to fall in love with this bold and entertaining book." --Mark LaFramboise, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
"You can place this novel on the bookshelf as the American equivalent of the Forsyte Saga. Blake gets the reader's attention right away, and as each story line draws you in deeper, you wonder how they will all play out and who will survive to pay the price. History may 'vanish'; however, the Miltons are sure to haunt my memory for a long time." --Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books, Excelsior, MN
"Family secrets, silences, confessions, betrayals, the connections between siblings, cousins, the different generations, people from outside--all are written with compelling authority, a sense of what is strong but also what is utterly fragile. Sarah Blake has written a marvelous book of how what endures endures, but how it all also passes." --Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA
"Sarah Blake's The Postmistress was a breakout hit in 2010. I am beyond thrilled that Flatiron Books is publishing The Guest Book in May 2019. As she did so skillfully in The Postmistress, Blake combines compelling narrative and beautiful prose to take the reader on a journey through recent history via a less traditional lens. The Guest Book is a gem." --Cathy Langer, former head buyer, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO
"Blake explores who gets to write history and how we can each interpret it individually, what it means to be truly inclusive, and how intolerance has been manifested in different ways throughout American history. You finish the last pages understanding this family, but also how blind they were to their own prejudices. And, perhaps, how we can do better." --Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter, Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, IL
"This haunting, three-generation saga of the upper-crust Milton family leading their privileged lives is simply stunning. Beginning in 1935 when Kitty and Ogden buy the idyllic island off the Atlantic coast, we are privy to the 'good life.' The secluded island is itself one of the main characters, impacting the lives of all. We soon learn that even in this paradise all is not ideal." --Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA
"This elegant, subtle novel takes the reader intimately into three generations of the Milton family. Each chapter leads the reader eagerly to the next, wanting to find out what happens in this family drama that illustrates so perfectly the influence of society and the cruelty therein. This brave novel, populated with fascinating characters, is a true gift to the reader." --Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books & Music, Sunriver, OR
"Sarah Blake gives us a lesson in what happens when you withhold acceptance from those who are different in her book, The Guest Book. In 1935, the aristocratic Milton family seems bound to repeat a familial history with devastating effects by ignoring the threat of the Nazis, the civil rights movement, and any acceptance of homosexuality. The story is eerily reminiscent of the current state of the United States. It makes us ask ourselves why we cannot accept everyone as being equal, why history must keep repeating itself, and whether or not we will ever truly learn from our mistakes. Maybe it's fiction that will save us all." --Cynthia St. John, Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, CA
"Poignant and moving…This is a great choice for book clubs as it is a thoughtful meditation on (among other things) race, class, and privilege and 'how to be' in the world. This thought-provoking novel lingers long after the last page is turned." --Tova Beiser, Brown University Bookstore, Providence, RI
"A fabulous read. In this epic sweep of several decades from the 1930s to present day, attitudes about race, privilege, class, family, and legacy are examined and challenged. Family secrets are revealed. Through vivid and compelling storytelling, Blake leads us to the realization that we can't escape our past." --Ellen Jarrett, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
"Sarah Blake's The Guest Book is haunting and wonderful at the same time. As was said of Ms. Blake's The Postmistress, The Guest Book is 'compassionate, insightful and unsentimental,' and it paints a portrait of an America coming to grips with anti-Semitism, privilege, and racism. I can't wait to share it with my customers, with whom, I'm confident, it will resonate very deeply and be the source of much discussion." --Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books, Miami, FL
"The Guest Book makes you want to sign in and never leave its pages as you navigate the multi-generational saga of The Miltons. Sarah Blake's novel of identity--tautly tied to geography and society, and embedded in secrets meant to protect the self as a sum of one's parts--has quiet power at its core. How it's passed down is up to the teller, how it's digested is up to the receiver. In that gap is how we and family propel ourselves into the unknowns of legacy." --Daiva Chesonis, Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride, CO
"I am completely taken with Sarah Blake's The Guest Book. She brilliantly captures three periods of time and creates such rich, complex characters. The remarkable ease with which she is able to bring places and objects into the story throughout time is wonderfully crafted. I finished reading it and immediately began again truly enjoying how much more of the story unfolds between the lines." --Donna Ignatuk, The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, NY
"Blake delivers a masterfully paced, elegantly written, and completely engrossing novel that manages to be distinctly American and at the same time call into question what an 'American' novel can mean and be. The Guest Book is a novel of longing, of home, of secrets, and the shifting weight of history. I feel very lucky to have been able to read this masterpiece before most readers, and to be one of the people telling my fellow booksellers, and eventually, my customers, about the pleasures, sorrows, and surprises of this beautiful, sad, and stunning book." --Robert McDonald, The Book Stall, Winnetka, IL
"The Guest Book is a multigenerational saga of a family marked by tragedy and fierce love for the family house on the island in Maine. Race, Nazis, money, and yes, a guest book overseen by the family matriarch all play roles in this force of a novel." --Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT
"What we keep and what we let go, history and what is true, stories embedded within a place, family secrets long buried, the possibility of righting wrongs--these are the powerful elements Sarah Blake wove into her unforgettable novel, The Guest Book. I am so looking forward to sharing this special gift with my customers." --Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
"I loved The Guest Book. The story line was consistent and gathered at the end, leaving you breathless." --Jay Bingham, The Lyric Bookshop, Pocatello, ID
"The Guest Book was a tremendous story. I found myself becoming extremely invested. Towards the end of the book and when the pivotal moments of their family history were revealed, I devoured it. I was unable to move from my spot until I finished." --Monica Lerch, Kramers Books, Washington, DC
"I've been waiting a long time for The Postmistress to deliver another surprise letter from its author, Sarah Blake. Happily, it has arrived, and it's been well worth the wait. The Guest Book once again displays Blake's ability to combine history with good and bad and mostly complicated characters who are trapped by time and place. The secrets of the past never seem to stay in the past; it's more a question of how to confront them in the present. Blake does it with grace and poetry." --Rona Brinlee, The BookMark, Neptune Beach, FL
"This book is stunning and joyously fun!" --Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books, Newton, MA
"The Guest Book is an epic, sweeping, multi-generation novel with the feel of Steinbeck or Fitzgerald. It's full of family secrets, love, loss and death. History, politics, and race are issues addressed in this work of moral dilemmas; it shows change in social issues and attitudes. The writing is both stunning and poetic and the boiling undercurrent of emotion created great tension. Loved it." --Karin Barker, Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO
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
"It is easy to be swept away with the beauty of Sarah Blake's writing, enthralled by her fully realized characters and the intricacies of their lives. Then it hits you: this is a terrific story. Compelling without being rushed, multifaceted without losing its heart, its expansiveness perfectly balanced with intimacy, you will savor every page of The Guest Book." --Luisa Smith, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
"The Guest Book is spectacular--it's just SO good. From the very first chapter you are sucked into this epic family story of privilege, history, prejudice, secrets, love, and loss. It comes at you in waves, crashing and subsiding, surging you forward and pulling you back, and never letting you go. Sarah Blake's finesse carries you through generations with such splendid depth and nuance. Master storytelling at its best!" --Julie Slavinsky, Warwick's, La Jolla, CA
"I have never had such an immediate shock to the senses as the first twenty-five pages of The Guest Book. From that electrifying event, the story winds around itself in fascinating tendrils. This novel turns the historical family genre on its head with the present rewriting the past--the honest, often brutal, portrayal of the patrician Milton family is as surprising as it is absorbing." --Emmy Carmichael, A Cappella Books, Atlanta, GA
"Sarah Blake's The Guest Book is a reminder to us all that judging history comes with the luxury of hindsight. It's true, hindsight may indeed be twenty-twenty but in Sarah Blake's new novel the nuances, personalities, and tribulations of the day help define how decisions that still shape our world today came to pass. A thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable read; an epic contemplation of how decent people can make misguided decisions." --Jamie Fiocco, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC
"A multi-generational story with real and memorable characters, it's also a commentary on time and history and our relationship to it. Sarah Blake is a master storyteller and readers are going to fall in love with this bold and entertaining book." --Mark LaFramboise, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
"You can place this novel on the bookshelf as the American equivalent of the Forsyte Saga. Blake gets the reader's attention right away, and as each story line draws you in deeper, you wonder how they will all play out and who will survive to pay the price. History may 'vanish'; however, the Miltons are sure to haunt my memory for a long time." --Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books, Excelsior, MN
"Family secrets, silences, confessions, betrayals, the connections between siblings, cousins, the different generations, people from outside--all are written with compelling authority, a sense of what is strong but also what is utterly fragile. Sarah Blake has written a marvelous book of how what endures endures, but how it all also passes." --Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA
"Sarah Blake's The Postmistress was a breakout hit in 2010. I am beyond thrilled that Flatiron Books is publishing The Guest Book in May 2019. As she did so skillfully in The Postmistress, Blake combines compelling narrative and beautiful prose to take the reader on a journey through recent history via a less traditional lens. The Guest Book is a gem." --Cathy Langer, former head buyer, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO
"Blake explores who gets to write history and how we can each interpret it individually, what it means to be truly inclusive, and how intolerance has been manifested in different ways throughout American history. You finish the last pages understanding this family, but also how blind they were to their own prejudices. And, perhaps, how we can do better." --Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter, Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, IL
"This haunting, three-generation saga of the upper-crust Milton family leading their privileged lives is simply stunning. Beginning in 1935 when Kitty and Ogden buy the idyllic island off the Atlantic coast, we are privy to the 'good life.' The secluded island is itself one of the main characters, impacting the lives of all. We soon learn that even in this paradise all is not ideal." --Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA
"This elegant, subtle novel takes the reader intimately into three generations of the Milton family. Each chapter leads the reader eagerly to the next, wanting to find out what happens in this family drama that illustrates so perfectly the influence of society and the cruelty therein. This brave novel, populated with fascinating characters, is a true gift to the reader." --Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books & Music, Sunriver, OR
"Sarah Blake gives us a lesson in what happens when you withhold acceptance from those who are different in her book, The Guest Book. In 1935, the aristocratic Milton family seems bound to repeat a familial history with devastating effects by ignoring the threat of the Nazis, the civil rights movement, and any acceptance of homosexuality. The story is eerily reminiscent of the current state of the United States. It makes us ask ourselves why we cannot accept everyone as being equal, why history must keep repeating itself, and whether or not we will ever truly learn from our mistakes. Maybe it's fiction that will save us all." --Cynthia St. John, Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, CA
"Poignant and moving…This is a great choice for book clubs as it is a thoughtful meditation on (among other things) race, class, and privilege and 'how to be' in the world. This thought-provoking novel lingers long after the last page is turned." --Tova Beiser, Brown University Bookstore, Providence, RI
"A fabulous read. In this epic sweep of several decades from the 1930s to present day, attitudes about race, privilege, class, family, and legacy are examined and challenged. Family secrets are revealed. Through vivid and compelling storytelling, Blake leads us to the realization that we can't escape our past." --Ellen Jarrett, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
"Sarah Blake's The Guest Book is haunting and wonderful at the same time. As was said of Ms. Blake's The Postmistress, The Guest Book is 'compassionate, insightful and unsentimental,' and it paints a portrait of an America coming to grips with anti-Semitism, privilege, and racism. I can't wait to share it with my customers, with whom, I'm confident, it will resonate very deeply and be the source of much discussion." --Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books, Miami, FL
"The Guest Book makes you want to sign in and never leave its pages as you navigate the multi-generational saga of The Miltons. Sarah Blake's novel of identity--tautly tied to geography and society, and embedded in secrets meant to protect the self as a sum of one's parts--has quiet power at its core. How it's passed down is up to the teller, how it's digested is up to the receiver. In that gap is how we and family propel ourselves into the unknowns of legacy." --Daiva Chesonis, Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride, CO
"I am completely taken with Sarah Blake's The Guest Book. She brilliantly captures three periods of time and creates such rich, complex characters. The remarkable ease with which she is able to bring places and objects into the story throughout time is wonderfully crafted. I finished reading it and immediately began again truly enjoying how much more of the story unfolds between the lines." --Donna Ignatuk, The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, NY
"Blake delivers a masterfully paced, elegantly written, and completely engrossing novel that manages to be distinctly American and at the same time call into question what an 'American' novel can mean and be. The Guest Book is a novel of longing, of home, of secrets, and the shifting weight of history. I feel very lucky to have been able to read this masterpiece before most readers, and to be one of the people telling my fellow booksellers, and eventually, my customers, about the pleasures, sorrows, and surprises of this beautiful, sad, and stunning book." --Robert McDonald, The Book Stall, Winnetka, IL
"The Guest Book is a multigenerational saga of a family marked by tragedy and fierce love for the family house on the island in Maine. Race, Nazis, money, and yes, a guest book overseen by the family matriarch all play roles in this force of a novel." --Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT
"What we keep and what we let go, history and what is true, stories embedded within a place, family secrets long buried, the possibility of righting wrongs--these are the powerful elements Sarah Blake wove into her unforgettable novel, The Guest Book. I am so looking forward to sharing this special gift with my customers." --Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
"I loved The Guest Book. The story line was consistent and gathered at the end, leaving you breathless." --Jay Bingham, The Lyric Bookshop, Pocatello, ID
"The Guest Book was a tremendous story. I found myself becoming extremely invested. Towards the end of the book and when the pivotal moments of their family history were revealed, I devoured it. I was unable to move from my spot until I finished." --Monica Lerch, Kramers Books, Washington, DC
"I've been waiting a long time for The Postmistress to deliver another surprise letter from its author, Sarah Blake. Happily, it has arrived, and it's been well worth the wait. The Guest Book once again displays Blake's ability to combine history with good and bad and mostly complicated characters who are trapped by time and place. The secrets of the past never seem to stay in the past; it's more a question of how to confront them in the present. Blake does it with grace and poetry." --Rona Brinlee, The BookMark, Neptune Beach, FL
"This book is stunning and joyously fun!" --Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books, Newton, MA
"The Guest Book is an epic, sweeping, multi-generation novel with the feel of Steinbeck or Fitzgerald. It's full of family secrets, love, loss and death. History, politics, and race are issues addressed in this work of moral dilemmas; it shows change in social issues and attitudes. The writing is both stunning and poetic and the boiling undercurrent of emotion created great tension. Loved it." --Karin Barker, Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO
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
Sarah Blake is the author of the novels Grange House and the New York Times bestseller The Postmistress. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.