Restoration
A Novel
Will be published approx. on 29. September 2026
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-959524-19-9 (ISBN)
Description
A literary novel about grief, inheritance, and the quiet ways the past shapes the structures we build—and the ones we must rebuild.
In Restoration, an American architect travels to rural England in 1984 to restore a centuries-old barn, only to discover that the project will require far more than architectural skill. As hidden family histories emerge through letters, memories, and the landscape itself, she must confront the truths her family buried long ago.
What does it mean to rebuild something that time has nearly erased?
In 1984, an American architect travels to rural England to oversee the restoration of a centuries-old barn. The assignment promises professional challenge and a welcome escape from the unresolved tensions of her life at home.
But the work quickly becomes something more complicated.
As she begins uncovering the building’s layered history—old foundations, forgotten rooms, and the stories embedded in its beams—letters from the past begin to surface, revealing a family history she never fully understood. The deeper she goes into the restoration, the more the project begins to mirror her own reckoning with grief, inheritance, and identity.
Set against the quiet beauty of the English countryside, Restoration is a richly textured literary novel about the ways the past lives inside the structures we inherit—both the physical ones we restore and the emotional ones we carry with us.
For readers of literary fiction that explores family, place, and memory, Restoration is a moving meditation on the long process of rebuilding a life.
In Restoration, an American architect travels to rural England in 1984 to restore a centuries-old barn, only to discover that the project will require far more than architectural skill. As hidden family histories emerge through letters, memories, and the landscape itself, she must confront the truths her family buried long ago.
What does it mean to rebuild something that time has nearly erased?
In 1984, an American architect travels to rural England to oversee the restoration of a centuries-old barn. The assignment promises professional challenge and a welcome escape from the unresolved tensions of her life at home.
But the work quickly becomes something more complicated.
As she begins uncovering the building’s layered history—old foundations, forgotten rooms, and the stories embedded in its beams—letters from the past begin to surface, revealing a family history she never fully understood. The deeper she goes into the restoration, the more the project begins to mirror her own reckoning with grief, inheritance, and identity.
Set against the quiet beauty of the English countryside, Restoration is a richly textured literary novel about the ways the past lives inside the structures we inherit—both the physical ones we restore and the emotional ones we carry with us.
For readers of literary fiction that explores family, place, and memory, Restoration is a moving meditation on the long process of rebuilding a life.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
549 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-959524-19-9 (9781959524199)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Carol holds a BA in Art and Architectural History and an MFA in Writing and Literature. Her work as a researcher, archivist, teacher, and writer has taken her into close collaboration with architects and art conservators in New York City, Los Angeles, and London. She lives between New York City and the Berkshires. Restoration is her first novel.