Save What's Left by Elizabeth Castellano
This debut novel follows Kathleen Deane as she makes a major life change. Her husband Tom tells her that he's not happy with his life or with his marriage and takes off on a round-the-world cruise. Kathleen sells their house in Kansas and buys a small cottage in the seaside town that her childhood best friend Josie lives in.
While she enjoys being close to her friend and her hometown of New York City, she finds herself living next to a construction zone as the house next door to hers is being rebuilt. It is a large glass structure that locals refer to as the Sugar Cube, and the construction debris often ends up in Kathleen's yard, along with some of the workers, who have ruined the new couch she had delivered, which is sitting on her ocean-facing porch. As her resentment builds, she begins a long one-way conversation with a local councillor, but nothing changes in terms of the construction which continues its intrusiveness, and its flouting of building by-laws.
Kathleen makes a friend, the neighbour across the street who is also offended by the large construction project, and finds herself heavily involved in the politics and pettiness of the town.
This is a novel that reveals the dark side of living in a beach town and all that goes with it.
Amusing in many ways, it also looks at perseverance, second chances, and unexpected life changes.
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