Upcountry (e-book) (used book) | Chin-Sun Lee | bookbook.eu

Description

With the death of a local child, a middle-class ex-Manhattanite, a cash-strapped single mother, and a young member
of an obscure religious "sect," become entangled in a
Catskills town.

Claire Pedersen and her husband are relocating from NYC to the
Catskills--they have found a terrific deal on a property in foreclosure.
The house has been in April Ives' family for three generations, but the
single mother of three children from two different fathers needs the
money. Claire and April are instantly antagonistic, but the sale proceeds,
and renovations begin.

Soon after, Claire's husband develops an erotic fascination with
Anna, a young member of a nearby religious community called The
Eternals. Two marriages--and one pregnancy--swiftly and dramatically
end. Claire is left to finish the renovation and salvage the life she had
imagined. April, meanwhile, is dealing with her ex who has just been
released from prison on a drug charge and the decision of whether or
not to let him build a relationship with the son he has never known.

Life "upcountry" means close encounters between disparate social
classes: Claire and April navigate mutual dislike and unanticipated
empathy. The house remains a sore point for both. Anna is the unhappy fulcrum between the two older women. Shunned from The Eternals
since the incident with Claire's husband, she yearns to return to their protection. Anna's strict views on transgression and penance are baffling to
April; for Claire, Anna remains the embodiment of her ruined marriage.