Dear Collective Brain -

I have a patron that is looking for the title of a book that she got through MeL last November and loved. We've run a few titles by her, but none of them have hit the mark. I was hoping that maybe someone else had read it or knew of it.

Realistic fiction/literary fiction
Narrator is an elderly woman, living in California, who must return to a place from her past (possibly on the East Cost). She isn't happy about it. Then the book is a flashback to the events of that place from the 1950s or 1960s.
About families who are neighbors
Focus is on the mothers and children of each family.
The mothers of the families have an affair with each other.
It takes place near the beach/shore/water/ocean/sea, and some related word is in the title of the book.
It is written by a female author

Books that we have tried (but failed) with are:

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
My Real Children by Jo Walton
Snapshots by William Norris
The Beach House by Georgia Bockover
Sea Escape by Lynne Reeves Griffin
The Lake House by Marci Nault

- Kathryn "Utterly Stubborn in Finding Books" Bergeron

--------------------------
Kathryn Bergeron, MSI
Associate Director
Baldwin Public Library
300 West Merrill Street
Birmingham, MI 48009
248-647-1700

http://www.baldwinlib.org