the paper palce by Miranda Cowley Heller

Reese's Book Club selection and a #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Paper Palace" has sold over a million copies worldwide. It is a story filled with secrets, love, lies, and a summer beach house. This deeply emotional tale unravels secrets and explores a complex love triangle. Set over a single day on Cape Cod, it follows a woman faced with a life-changing decision that has been years in the making.

On a perfect August morning, Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, wakes up at "The Paper Palace," the family summer home she has visited every year of her life. However, this morning is different: the night before, Elle and her oldest friend, Jonas, slipped out into the darkness and had sex for the first time while their spouses chatted inside. Over the next twenty-four hours, Elle must choose between the life she has built with her beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined with her childhood love, Jonas, had a tragic event not altered their paths.

Tender yet devastating, "The Paper Palace" explores the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the complexities of family dynamics.