The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

This review contains SPOILER ALERTS at the end! Proceed with caution :)

We meet Elle Bishop at the midpoint of her life when she has a very difficult choice to make. She has to choose between her current life of stability, the family she has built with her husband or her childhood love who she feels she is destined to be with. This story is very complex, and at times, can be hard to follow. If you can pay attention, however, you will be engaged in a family affair that is both beautiful and heartwrenching. 

We follow Elle on this 24-hour journey where she tries to rationalize her actions to help support the decision she teeters on. Throughout the novel, we also see flashbacks to Elle’s past where we learn about tragedies her family has encountered and people who have failed each other in more ways than one.

The author’s writing is so beautifully descriptive that you feel like you are on the remote beach of Cape Cod and that you have been visiting there for years. You are sitting around the table on the porch with Elle's family and attending the annual bonfire on the beach.

I’ve read many comments regarding this book. It seems that the ending holds a lot of ambiguity for readers, so here is my insight. In the last few chapters leading to the end of the book, Elle is saying goodbye to her family. She spends a few precious moments with her sons and daughter. “Tonight I want to be here with my beautiful children…believing this will last forever” (p. 379). She makes love to her husband one last time and actually begs him to go with her for her morning swim. “Come with me. End this” (p. 385). Elle even admits to her mother that it was her stepbrother and not her stepfather who abused her all those years ago. Her mother almost gives Elle permission to leave saying that ‘[t]here are some swims you do regret…the problem is, you never know until you take them” (p. 382). 

All of these scenes, including Elle’s last swim into the pond, make me believe that she chose Jonas. She sees a figure standing across the pond wearing a blue shirt & leaves her wedding ring behind. 

This is a great end-of-summer read! 

What are some of your insights into this ending? 

Warning: there are some very descriptive parts that involve sexual assault. It took me by surprise, so I want to make sure other readers are aware. 

4/5 stars