Welcome to Litsy!

From an �achingly eloquent� author, a historical saga about love, class, and the past we try, and fail, to escape In 1916, to prevent the people of Oyster Bay, Long Island, from reclaiming the beachfront, the artist and decorator Louis C. Tiffany dynamited the breakwater in front of his mansion Laurelton Hall. The explosion woke Prudence O�Connor, the four-year-old daughter of one of the estate�s battalion of gardeners, and sent her family hastily, mysteriously, to New York City. Ninety-seven years later, Prudence is widowed and living alone, still in New York, when she receives an unexpected visit from her grandniece Grace, who arrives with a box of mementoes from her grandfather�s house�objects that for Prudence unravel long-repressed memories, leading her back to the explosion and to a reimagining of the tenor and significance of her life. The Peacock Feast spans the twentieth century and the country, ricocheting from New York to San Francisco, from the decadent mansions of the Tiffany family to the seamstress hall at Wannamaker�s, and from the consultation room of Anna Freud (who became the partner of Tiffany�s daughter Dorothy) to a California commune. With psychological acuity and empathy, Lisa Gornick has written a magnificent family drama, a character study, and a heartrending portrait of the ways our decisions reverberate out into time and down through generations.