Glass Houses (A Novel)

“Heartfelt [and] hilarious. . . . Mileti rides this swelling narrative tide with grace, never losing her balance, and I was swept along.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Mitchard

In the tradition of Emma Straub, Catherine Newman, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, a comedic and moving story of one family’s fraught reunion at their adulterous father’s astonishingly designed Berkshires lake house—and the decades' worth of fiercely kept secrets that unravel when the family is once again under the same roof.

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

For the Stein family, the adage is especially fitting. Decades back (and with a little help from his formidable first wife, Hannah), Allen Stein built a modern marvel of glass architecture on the shores of a beautiful lake in the Berkshires. The family only enjoyed two summers at the house together before Allen’s affairs imploded his and Hannah’s marriage, leaving forty-plus years of acrimonious estrangement in its wake.

Now nothing—not even a lifetime achievement award—could lure Allen back to that house . . . at least while his bitter ex-wife is there. But when Allen and Hannah’s children Sam and Sara send their mother thousands of miles away on an Arctic cruise, Allen reluctantly agrees to return.

Then Hannah’s trip is cancelled last-minute, and—much to everyone's horror—the family is marooned in the house together. Sam and Sara—each bearing different scars from growing up in their parents’ crossfire—are forced to batten down the hatches to deal with the storm. The unfolding drama only heightens the hilarity as it compounds the crises brewing in their lives, including Sam’s daughter Esme, on a journey of self-discovery that is causing her to re-evaluate her relationship to marriage and partnership, infidelities past and present, and several generations of emotional baggage. As every piece of their dirty laundry is aired, the Steins must face a long overdue reckoning with themselves and one another.

Poignant and rich with humanity, Glass Houses is a bittersweet and warm-hearted exploration of marriage, love, betrayal, and forgiveness that illuminates what binds us together and drives us apart.