The Second Home: A Novel

"Clancy writes with warmth, wit, and wisdom about fantastically human characters. A novel of family and place and belonging for fans of Ann Packer and J. Courtney Sullivan." —Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize–finalist for The Great Believers

After a disastrous summer spent at her family's home on Cape Cod when she is seventeen, Ann Gordon is happy to never visit Wellfleet again. If only she'd stayed in Wisconsin, she might never have met Anthony Shaw, and she would have held onto the future she'd so carefully planned for herself. Instead, Ann ends up harboring a devastating secret that strains her relationship with her parents, sends her sister Poppy to every corner of the world chasing waves (and her next fling), and leaves her adopted brother, Michael, estranged from the family.

Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, and Ann and Poppy are left to decide the fate of the beach house that's been in the Gordon family for generations. Just when they've decided to sell, Michael reenters their lives with a legitimate claim to a third of the estate. He wants the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about what happened that long-ago summer that changed all of their lives forever. As the siblings reunite after years apart, their old secrets and lies, longings and losses, are pulled to the surface. Is the house the one thing that can still bring them together—or will it tear them apart, once and for all?

"Tender and suspenseful, Clancy's debut explores the nature of home as well as the nature of family itself—given and chosen." —Chloe Benjamin, New York Times –bestselling author

"A pitch-perfect summer novel with a scintillating combination of drama, heart and lovely prose that will stay with you long into autumn." —Bookreporter.com