Strange Fits of Passion - by Anita Shreve (Paperback)

About the Book

Everyone believes that Maureen and Harrold English have a happy, stable marriage. But after Maureen suffers another brutal beating, she flees with her infant daughter to a coastal town in Maine. Harrold reappears, bringing the story to a violent, unforgettable climax.

Book Synopsis

"Thrilling"* with an ingenious structure, Strange Fits of Passion is a powerful portrait of truth, deception, and a violent marriage from acclaimed novelist Anita Shreve.
*The New Yorker

Everyone believes that Maureen and Harrold English, two successful New York City journalists, have a happy, stable marriage. It's the early '70s, and no one discusses or even suspects domestic abuse.

But after Maureen suffers another brutal beating, she flees with her infant daughter to a coastal town in Maine. The weeks pass slowly, and just as Maureen settles into her new life and new identity, Harrold reappears, bringing the story to a violent, unforgettable climax.

Nearly nineteen years later, a cache of documents regarding Maureen English is given to her daughter by a journalist. The truth should lie within them, but the papers raise far more questions than they answer...

Review Quotes

"Thrilling and finely written . . . Ms. Shreve renders the beleaguered woman's voice, and the voices of other townspeople, with the arresting clarity we ask of all good writing."-The New Yorker

"Shreve's prose is clear and compassionate, and her message moving."-The Washington Post Book World

"Superbly rendered . . . both touching and troubling. The box-within-a-box structure moves Shreve's subtle and searing book beyond the contemporary horror genre. It creates a kind of double novel."-Cosmopolitan