The House at the Edge of Night

This wasn't a fast moving book but it was a beautifully written piece of literature. This wasn't an earthshaking story but a story that pulls you in and envelops you. The author has picked the perfect location in Castellamare to bring this novel to life. It is a place and a time where the inhabitants look askance at newcomers. It is a place that honors tradition regardless of the inequities of social status. The characters are so well defined that you would recognize their traits in those you love and respect and those you dislike and fear. There are many subtexts which I found to be perfectly interwoven into this multi generational story.

I found myself slowing my normal reading pace in order to savor each chapter. I closed the book show more after each section so I had time to totally absorb the writing. Treat yourself to a perfectly paced, rich and rewarding book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy. show less

What a beautiful Reading Experience........ an enchanting and sweeping story set over four generations. Sometimes a book just needs to tell a story and that is exactly what The House At The Edge Of Night does.

I love books set on Islands and Catherine Banner's story set on the tiny, idyllic island of Castellamare is beautifully written with an extremely likable cast of characters that stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

This is a quite novel, no major dramas or twists or turns, just a beautiful well written story with interesting characters. A story where very little happens and yet everything happens over a span of four generations. The people of Castellamare are transformed by two world wars and a great recession, show more by the threat of fascism and their deep bonds of passion and friendship, and by bitter rivalries and the power of forgiveness.
I loved following the lives of the Esposito family and the other islanders and really got a sense of time and place of Castellamare.
I ordered the Hardback edition of this Book and so happy to have this one on my bookshelf.

I had a rating of 5 starts in my head through the first 350 pages of the Novel but I did find the last 100 pages ran out of steam and hence the reason for my 4 star rating.

Having said that I really enjoyed the read, great writing and interesting characters. show less

All through the first half of the book, I was thinking this probably deserved three stars. But by the end, it was clearly four. So if you feel tempted to give up mid-way, don't.

At the heart of the book is a family-run cafe on a small, remote island called Castellamare, near Sicily. The book traces the history of this family through four generations, beginning with the family patriarch, Amedeo. A physician by training, he come to the island to be the only local doctor but, because of a few bad decisions coupled with much local prejudice, he winds up taking over the cafe. He falls in love with both the island and a local woman and his family takes root.

As much as this is a story of Amedeo's and his descendants, it's also a story of the show more small island, which operates like any small town. Everyone knows everyone else's business. There is a lot of gossiping and people are quick to make and hold onto judgements about others. And everywhere, there are secrets. There is also deep love and commitment.

At the start of the novel, the island remains isolated, removed from the most of the trappings and advances of western civilization. Then, slowly, as years pass, more and more of the outside world begins to intrude on what was a simple, farming-based way of life, under the thumb of a wealthy but cruel count. As outside influences come into play, the residents of Castellamare begin to change, and they demand more. There are growing rivalries, new business competition, and a growing desire, especially among the young, to sample the world beyond the island.

The cast of characters is varied. From the wealthy count and his largely ignored wife, to a World War II prisoner-turned poet, to a wounded English soldier. Catherine Banner does an exceptional job of exploring the nature of all sorts of relationships -- among siblings, between former and current lovers, and even how unrelated people can sometimes form powerful bounds even stronger than those of family.

It's quite a lovely portrait of what is lost and what is gained when the modern world encroaches on a remote and isolated group of tightly-connected people. show less

I find this book hard to explain. If little action and a languid pace are not your cup of tea it's not for you, but you'll pass up dreamy writing and memorable characters. The feeling reminds me of [Beautiful Ruins] though I liked this more.

Amedeo Esposito, a young doctor needing a job in the early 20th century, leaves his home in northern Italy for a remote island off the coast of Sicily. So begins a saga that will cover almost 100 years because although Amedeo will live a long life, he will never leave Castellamare. He is so taken by the people and their history he begins to carry a red journal with him to record the stories he's told, so not only does he become the island's doctor, he also becomes its storyteller.

After a few years show more Amedeo marries the island's feisty teacher, Pina. They will encounter all the difficulties of life during that time. Recession, the threat of fascism, the loss of children, but they also experience the deep bonds of family and life long friendships. The later part of their lives will be spent at The House at the Edge of Night. Amedeo was enchanted by the bougainvillea covered home that also served as a café, bar and island gathering place when he first arrived. So when he retires after decades of being the island's doctor and secret keeper, he and Pina restore the abandoned building and The House at the Edge of Night welcomes the islanders once again. show less

3.5
Four generations of Esposito live on a small island in an old rambling house with a bar aptly named "The House at the Edge of Night". The narrative, that mixes a family saga with some mystic notes remiscenting of Latin America's authors, is smooth, enthralling and often lulling as the sea waves around this island of Castellamare.
The book creates a warm and cosy feeling of a smal, gossiping and meddling but loving and warm Mediterranean community, the one, where the village actually raises a child. Even the often used tropes of ricotta, limoncello, the sun and the smell of bougainvillea do not annoy the reader.
Both the main heroes and the secondary characters are not very well developed, but introduced in a series of small show more incidents or chain of bigger events, that translate the small life of ordinary people in this distant and forgotten place. The narration style creates some sort of distance, like a faded photograph.
However, Banner takes this small life and its supposed advantages too far. None of the islanders are allowed to escape the island in any successful or meaningful way: they either stay and pass the opportunity for an entirely different life altogether or try it and come back defeated after a period of time. Thus it seems to me that Banner is enamored with the idea of simple life and simple pleasures and pushes it too strongly in the book. show less

1914: Für Amedeo Esposito beginnt ein neuer Lebensabschnitt, als er nach Castellamare reist, einer kleinen (fiktiven) Insel nahe Sizilien. Dort soll er seine erste richtige Stelle als Arzt antreten - es wird seine einzige bleiben. Er heiratet Pina, mit der er vier Kinder hat und übernimmt nach einem Skandal das frühere Café der Insel, das Haus am Rande der Nacht. Gemeinsam mit ihm, seiner Familie und den anderen Bewohnern Castellamares durchlebt man die Höhen und Tiefen der letzten 100 Jahre, die aufgrund der abgeschiedenen Lage der Insel diese meist etwas verzögert erreichen.
Es ist eine wirklich schöne Familiengeschichte, in der sich all das Glück und Leid widerspiegelt, das auch dem Rest der Welt widerfährt. Amedeo wird im 1. show more Weltkrieg eingezogen und kehrt danach mit dem Bewusstsein zurück, diese Insel nie wieder verlassen zu wollen. Im 2. Weltkrieg werden seine und Pinas Söhne eingezogen - nicht alle kommen wieder und wenn, wird ihr weiteres Leben dadurch schwer beeinflusst. Auch der Faschismus hält Einzug auf Castellomare und zerstört den bis dahin guten Zusammenhalt der Bewohner. Nach dem Krieg erlebt nicht nur das Festland einen Aufschwung, auch den BewohnerInnen der Insel geht es zusehends besser und die bis dahin herrschenden, fast schon feudalistischen Verhältnisse beginnen sich immer mehr zu lockern. Alle bekommen Strom, der Tourismus nimmt zu, der erste Computer auf der Insel wird installiert und die nächste Generation im Haus am Rande der Nacht macht sich mit dem Café vertraut. Die Welt hält Einzug in Castellamare und in Vielen wird der Wunsch wach, auch die Welt jenseits der Insel kennenzulernen. Konflikte bahnen sich an...
Der Schwerpunkt dieses Romans liegt klar auf dem Leben der Familie Esposito, die von Beginn an eine zentrale Stelle in diesem Mikrokosmos einnimmt. Dies liegt sicherlich auch an der ursprünglichen Funktion von Amedeo als Arzt und von Pinas als Schulmeisterin. Ebenso wie danach an ihrem Einsatz als Besitzer des einzigen Cafés und damit Treffpunkt auf der Insel. Stets sind sie miteingebunden in den Klatsch, Tratsch und die Geheimnisse die auf Castellamare kursieren und so erlebt man mit ihnen all das, was eine derart enge und kleine Gemeinschaft ausmacht. Mir persönlich hätte es gefallen, wenn die Geschehnisse im Rest der Welt etwas mehr Einfluss auf die Geschichte gehabt hätten bzw. sie deutlicher dargestellt worden wären. So bleibt es aber bei einer unterhaltsamen Familiengeschichte. show less

This is wonderful book! It's a family saga set on a little island off the shore of Sicily called Castellamare. It covers 90 years in the lives of the Esposito family and their historical house called the The House at the Edge of Night. The saga begins in 1917 when a young doctor called Amadeo Esposito comes to the remote island to begin a practice. Amadeo falls in love with the island and with it's people, and other than to serve as a medic in the Great War, he never leaves it again. When he comes back, he buys the house and resurrects the bar that it was before the war. He marries and raises a family and then we work our way through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the hippie sixties all the way to the great bank fall of show more 2008. Most of these worldly events aren't experienced on this remote island. The island and it's people have come through many bad times and good times, and it just continues on, mostly due to the resiliency of its people. This is where the strength of this novel lies, in the huge, wonderful cast of characters. There's Amadeo and his wife Pina, their resilient and strong daughter Maria-Grazia. There is the old woman soothsayer Gesuina and the huge fisherman Pino, little Concetta and of course il count. There are many more memorable characters in this book. Ms. Banner has created a totally wonderful book here, and watching the families live, love, raise families and grow old was powerful and moving. The resilience of these people living on the little island of Castellamare is what drives this book and truly the people make this book come alive. Highly recommended. show less