Pete and Alice in Maine

A Novel

By: Caitlin Shetterly

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Joe Knezevich, Sarah Naughton

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

“Gripping.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

“Shetterly’s debut achieves a subtle grace, a quality of light and shadow worthy of a Bergman film.”—Allegra Goodman, New York Times Book Review

"Pete and Alice in Maine is a tender, big-hearted, clear-eyed portrait of a marriage, and a family, in crisis—set during the plague years when the entire world was in crisis. As she investigates the insidious effect of lies, betrayal, fear, and anger, not to mention the mundane joys and wrenching heartaches of everyday life, Caitlin Shetterly gets to the heart of what it means to be a family.” — Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles

A powerful and beautifully written debut novel that intimately explores a fractured marriage and the struggles of modern parenthood, set against the backdrop of the chaotic spring of 2020.

Reeling from a painful betrayal in her marriage as the Covid pandemic takes hold in New York City, Alice packs up her family and flees to their vacation home in Maine. She hopes to find sanctuary—from the uncertainties of the exploding pandemic and her faltering marriage.

Putting distance between herself and the stresses and troubles of the city, Alice begins to feel safe and relieved. But the locals are far from friendly. Trapped and forced into quarantine by hostile neighbors, Alice sees the imprisoning structure of her life in this new predicament. Stripped down to the bare essentials of survival and tending to the needs of her two children, she can no longer ignore all the ways in which she feels limited and lost—lost in the big city, lost as a wife, lost as a mother, lost as a daughter and lost as a person.

As the world shifts around her and the balance in her marriage tilts, Alice and her husband, Pete, are left to consider if what keeps their family safe is the same thing as what keeps their family together.

©2023 Caitlin Shetterly (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Great read!

I liked this book and think it was well written…..just bummed about the ending. I would recommend it otherwise!

Lingering aftershocks of a profound time in our history

Beautifully written story about the impact that the pandemic had on one family but represented many in so many ways- the aftershocks still linger and leave us questioning so much about this tragic time. I did not like the ending. I was looking for a fairytale finish full of hope and optimism. Instead, the story seemed cut off in mid sentence.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I am so glad that I read this. I hesitated, due to the pandemic setting…but, found this story to be ultimately cathartic. Loved the author’s note. Will absolutely look forward to new work by Caitlin Shetterly.

A Soap Opera best left unread

I liked nothing about this book except the author’s note at the end. I don’t want to read/listen to a novel where a girl’s first period is discussed ad nauseam.

The characters, parents and children, were unlikable as well as being uninteresting. I’m glad I don’t know them… and I avoid people who are like them. The mother was a doormat to her children and never disciplined the little brats so they got worse. It was painful to listen to the total dysfunction.

The reader with the Maine accent was way off the mark.

Save your time and don’t waste it on this.

poor

poor writing, poor story, waste of a credit. it drags without substantial character development

Disappointing

I found the characters to be predictable tropes, with petty, self absorbed concerns. They were whiny and unsympathetic. The most interesting part was the post script where the author talks about wanting to write a book about how her state of Maine deals with the influx of urban immigrants, who threaten to use and abuse the local resources. I wish she had written that book.