So they keep it a secret from their friends and families-in fact, Harriet barely even admits it to herself, focusing instead on her grueling hours as a surgical resident. They’ve been part of the same boisterous friend group since college, and they know that their breakup will devastate the others and make things more than a little awkward. Wyn Connor and Harriet Kilpatrick were the perfect couple-until Wyn dumped Harriet for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand. They’re the white sheets we drape over our ghosts so we can see them.”Ī lyrical mystery that embraces letting go and living freely.Įxes pretend they’re still together for the sake of their friends on their annual summer vacation. Allen breathes life into her characters, those living and those in between, and fashions a narrative that imparts a powerful belief in everlasting memory: “Stories aren’t fiction. Charlotte’s story in particular stands out once beholden to her parents’ religious cult, she hesitates to trust Zoey’s innocence and Mac’s selflessness.

Allen weaves together an intriguing mystery, following each resident of Dellawisp as they navigate loss and love and uncover what is true and what is real. With Charlotte’s help, Zoey is determined to understand the secrets of this eccentric woman, but she soon realizes that Lizbeth may not be the only Dellawisp resident haunted by the past. When Lizbeth unexpectedly dies the first night of Zoey’s stay, Frasier asks Zoey to clean out her neighbor’s cluttered home. Maintained by the elderly Frasier, who is constantly tailed by turquoise dellawisp birds, the condos house a hodgepodge of colorful neighbors, including the burly redheaded chef Mac the guarded, henna-covered artist Charlotte the paper-hoarding busybody Lizbeth and her chain-smoking recluse sister, Lucy. Joining Zoey is her imaginary bird, Pigeon, and when they arrive, Zoey is disappointed to discover few traces of her mother…though her new environment proves anything but lonely. She hopes that the condo, located at the horseshoe-shaped Dellawisp complex, will unearth memories of Paloma, who died 12 years ago in a car accident. With her inattentive father and stepmother’s eagerness to convert her bedroom into a crafting oasis, the 18-year-old decided to leave her home in Tulsa to spend the summer before college at her late mother’s old studio on the island. Made famous by Roscoe Avanger’s legendary novel Sweet Mallow, quaint Mallow Island, South Carolina, proves a welcome respite for Zoey Hennessey.

Ghosts with untold stories and guests with long-buried secrets reside in Mallow Island’s mysterious Dellawisp condos.

Other birds a novel book review