Art Corriveau

Set in a small Vermont town in the early decades of the twentieth century, Housewrights tells the story of Lily Willard, the town librarian, and her relationship with Oren and Ian Pritchard, carpenters who roam New England building houses for others though they themselves are homeless. Lily first meets the twins one magical summer when they are children. Ten years later, Oren returns for Lily, marries her, and settles down—for the first time in his life. When Ian comes back from the Great War, shell-shocked and wounded, Lily welcomes him into their home. Eyebrows are raised only silently at this unusual household, until one evening at the Grange Hall dance the three take a heady, impetuous waltz together—with practically the entire town watching.

This novel grapples with subjects and themes that may not be suitable for children. Parent discretion is advised.

Praise for Housewrights:

Publisher’s Weekly
"Corriveau concocts an unusual but convincing romantic triangle in his excellent first novel."

San Francisco Chronicle
"Corriveau skillfully chronicles the torments of those who don’t fit in but who have inhabited a magic, separate world since childhood. Housewrights is fresh, sweet, spare and wholely satisfying."

Boston Herald
"The 'Wright' Stuff... Housewrights is the story of Lily Willard, a young woman who feels stifled by the conservativism of her small-town community. The result is a love story enmeshed in modernization, change and New England history."

Book Sense
"What a well-written, wonderful story. A lovely sad picture of life in an early 1900s Vermont town." (Book Sense 76 summer selection)

Booklist
"Corriveau has written a surprisingly rich novel that offers many pleasures, including the well-realized setting and characters." (featured review)

Library Journal
"The heartfelt ending to this compelling novel presents a convincing finale to one of the better debut novels of this year."

Jodi Picoult, author
"In the most wrenching New England love triangle I've read since Ethan Frome, Art Corriveau creates a trio of characters in search of their other halves. Exquisitely drafted, Housewrights explores loss and longing, friendship and family, the very nature of physical attraction--and ultimately reminds us that home is always where the heart is."

Charles Baxter, author
"Housewrights is a fascinating and intricate novel about doubleness--what can be shown and what has to remain secret--in a small New England town in the early part of the twentieth century. Its prose has a remarkable cleanliness and clarity, as if the nevel itself had been built out of new wood. Art Corriveau's attention to the complexity of his characters and their community is deeply impressive, and his novel a wonderful addition to the literature of communities that can both shelter and then un-house their inhabitants."

Nicholas Delbanco, author
"This story of a town, a time and a love triangle borrows its rhythms from those of the seasons; Art Corriveau brings a long-dead way of life--the craftsmen and farmers, the devoted and the venturesome--vividly back to the page."

Nuala O'Faolain, author
"A corner of the past that startles us with its innocence and its passion, tenderly explored."