Fellowship Point: A Novel

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The masterful story of a lifelong friendship between two very different women with shared histories and buried secrets, tested in the twilight of their lives, set across the arc of the 20th century.

Celebrated childrens book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacyto complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.

Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband, and philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She exalts in creating beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships, and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sonsbut what is it that Polly wants herself

Agness designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agness resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all.

Fellowship Point reads like a classic 19th-century novel in its beautifully woven, multilayered narrative, but it is entirely contemporary in the themes it explores; a deep and empathic interest in womens lives, the class differences that divided us, the struggle to protect the natural world, and, above all, a reckoning with intimacy, history, and posterity. It is a masterwork from Alice Elliott Dark.

Reviews

Dark (Think of England) celebrates womens friendships and artistic mentorship in this expansive yet intimate novel. The families and their grudges and grievances fill a broad canvas, and within it Dark delves deeply into the relationships between Agnes and her work, humans and the land, mothers and children, and, most indelibly, the sustenance and joy provided by a long-held female friendship. Its a remarkable achievement. -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Fellowship Point is a marvel. Intricately constructed, utterly unique, this novel set on the coast of Maine is filled with insights about writing, about the perils and freedoms of aging, about the great mysteries, as well as the pleasures, of life. The story about the relationships between three women unfolds, as life does, through joys and losses, confrontations and confessions, with twists along the way that change your perception of all that came before. This is a world is so closely and acutely observed that I felt I lived in it. I was sorry to leave." Christina Baker Kline,#1 New York Times bestselling author
"I cant remember the last time Ive fallen so hard for a book. Fellowship Point is about many things: friendship, secrets, legacy, love, familybut the true magic here is in the writing. Alice Elliott Dark has conjured a world so immersive I can still feel it in my bones. I mourned the finish, when I would have to leave behind the characters I grew to love. This captivating, unforgettable novel is thrillingly good. Cynthia DAprix Sweeney, New York Timesbestselling author of Nest and Good Company
"Fellowship Point is deeply relevant in its concernsabout the land, the creatures who inhabit it, and the legacies of ownership, stewardship, and friendshipbut its also just a great, absorbing, and transformative read.Like a Maine glade, Darks book is filled with light." Jo Ann Beard, author of Festival Days and In Zanesville
"I positively inhaled this novel--and then stingily meted out the last few pages, not wanting it to end. FELLOWSHIP POINT is a marvel--masterfully executed, beautifully layered, huge-hearted and sharp-witted--and Alice Elliott Dark is a writerof great empathy and incredible skill."

--Claire Lombardo,New York Times Bestsellingauthor of The Most Fun We Ever Had
I fell intoFellowshipPoint--fell in step and in love with its characters, with its landscape, with its ideas about art and marriage and, above all, friendship. It's a beautifully passionate book about what it means to love a place and to love all the people of your life, and how life itself is a riveting plot and deep mystery.

---Elizabeth McCracken,New York Timesbestselling author ofBowlawayandThe Giants House
"AliceElliottDarkis a writer Ive long admired. With the splendid, engrossing Fellowship Point she has written a novel that is both sweeping and intimate as it deftly explores friendship, class, and the tricky nature of time."

--Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion and The Interestings

Author Bio

Alice Elliott Dark is the authorthe novels Fellowship Point and Think of England, as well as two collections of short stories,In the GloamingandNaked to the Waist.Her work has appeared inThe New Yorker,Harpers,The New York Times,Best American Short Stories,andO. Henry: Prize Stories,among others.Her award-winning storyIn the Gloaming was made into two films and was chosen for inclusion in Best American Stories of the Century. Dark is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is an associate professor at Rutgers-Newark in the MFA program.