"One summer in Seaside, steps away from the bustling boardwalk, the Dunne family faces an unknowable future and copes with loss through hard work and dark humor, sisterhood and friendship, romance and escape. Brian and Margot Dunne live in Seaside year-round, with their daughters Liz and Evy. The Dunnes run a real estate company, quickly turning over rental houses to keep a roof over their heads. Together the family must navigate the unimaginable when a brain tumor suddenly transforms Brian, sparking violent outbursts and erratic emotions. Amidst the chaos and new responsibilities, Liz still craves the flirtation and adventure every teenage girl wants. A wounded, sarcastic side emerges in her younger sister Evy, who works in a candy shop and falls in love with her friend Olivia, but secretly adopts the online persona of a middle-aged-mom and joins a support group in an attempt to connect with her own mother. Meanwhile, Margot faces an impossible choice driven by grief, impulse, and the ways Seaside has shaped her. Falling apart is not an option, but she can always pack up and leave the beach behind. The Shore is a heartbreaking, ultimately uplifting debut novel about the particular pain of losing someone who becomes a stranger before he disappears, the grit and hustle of running a small business in a Jersey Shore tourist town, the ways we reach out to strangers when our families can't give us everything we need, the nostalgic comfort we find in encountering versions of our former selves, and the understanding that develops between sisters as they confront mortality while coming of age"-- Provided by publisher.
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