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The Paper Palace

2 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE 
 
One life changing decision: your husband or your one true love? 
 
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On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace' - her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside... 
 
So begins a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and fifty years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision. 
 
A PAGE-TURNING SUMMER READ FOR FANS OF WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING AND LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE 
 
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Readers have been gripped by THE PAPER PALACE: 
 
***** 'I devoured this book in a couple of days' 
 
***** 'I fell in love with the characters' 
 
***** 'A heart-rending love story filled with so many complications' 
 
Sunday Times Bestseller, September 2022

A deeply emotional love story that follows one day in the life of Elle Bishop as she navigates the unravelling of secrets, lies and a very complex love triangle

It's glorious and gorgeous. I was absolutely immersed and gripped and I'm devastated to have finished it

This accomplished family saga is gripping and poetic, capturing the complexity of the human heart

A family drama, a forbidden love story, a childhood tragedy, The Paper Palace is a stunning literary debut that will eat you up and leave you reeling - you won't want it to end

It's been ages since I was so absorbed in a contemporary novel. I loved it

In rich and sensuous prose, Cowley Heller, cracks open the human heart and exposes her character's choices: the paths not taken and the devastating consequences. I smelled the old cabins and the backwoods, felt the pond water lapping around my ankles, experienced the love and loss of family. A perceptive and powerful story which will stay with me for a long time

Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

Tightly woven and immediate, The Paper Palace takes us deep into a vivid summer landscape, a family, and a private, longstanding love story, and holds us there from start to finish

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

I can't think of a more brilliant debut than The Paper Palace. Enticing, assured and multi-layered, it introduces a major new voice in American fiction . . . A marvel

Absolutely phenomenal novel - dazzling writing and utterly addictive. Read it

It felt as if I read The Paper Palace in one go. It was completely immersive, and shocking, and utterly alive. I loved it

The Paper Palace turned out to be the very page-turner I needed. If you want to learn something about love over a long time - how it can hurt, how it can soar - read this book

Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes

A family drama, a forbidden love story, a childhood tragedy, this is a stunning literary debut that will leave you reeling

A beautifully constructed, wonderfully intelligent and beguiling novel, rich with a multitude of pleasures

Miranda Cowley Heller has written a magnificent page-turner, a love story that shimmers with desire, intelligence, and humor. Lush and gorgeously written, The Paper Palace is as intoxicating as a summer night by the sea. I didn't want it to end

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest

Set in the physical and psychic landscape of Cape Cod, The Paper Palace is a fever dream of a novel, luminous with love and shot through with humor and heartbreak. It is a book that explores the indelibility of childhood, what it means to be shaped by place, and all that is unpredictable about the human heart. I couldn't put it down

Beautifully written, richly compelling, The Paper Palace is as dark and uncompromising as it is tender and lyrical. Here is a love triangle that keeps you turning the pages, a vivid evocation of place, and an exploration of the one of the most unsettling of secrets

Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle

The writing is full of rich detail, evoking the New England landscape . . . this is an absorbing family saga packed with intrigue and complicated characters that transports you to Cape Cod. I can't wait for the adaptation

Mesmerising . . .  A promising debut from a talent to watch

A deliciously lyrical novel . . . weaving between the dangerous yet excitable now and the years of ungodly traumas passed, this masterful tale of childhood love will wash over you like the refreshing, cold waters of The Paper Palace's nearby lake

[Cowley Heller] brings to fiction an understanding of how to layer storylines, as well as an assured feel for dialogue and visual description . . . a skilful portrait

The Paper Palace paints a vivid picture of family secrets and tensions, against the backdrop of a sun-soaked summer

Miranda Cowley Heller's debut The Paper Palace . . . finds Elle on the point of leaving her near-perfect family life for the visceral thrill of Jonas, green-eyed soul mate of her youthful vacations. With its atmospheric setting and rich backstory, the denouement is set to be an August talking point and a mini-series is already slated.'

This accomplished family saga is gripping and poetic, capturing the complexity of the human heart

A richly detailed family saga that nods to tales by Johns Cheever and Updike . . . this immersive novel makes for a lushly satisfying read

I love the combination of beautiful writing , a tautly paced plot and rich characterisation. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller ticks all three boxes, and I can't recommend it highly enough

I love the combination of beautiful writing , a tautly paced plot and rich characterisation. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller ticks all three boxes , and I can't recommend it highly enough

Miranda Cowley Heller was raised in New York City and Cape Cod.  Her debut novel The Paper Palace was a number one New York Times bestseller in the US, a Sunday Times bestseller in the UK and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize.  This is her first collection of poetry.

Before anyone else is awake, on a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the glorious fresh water pond below 'The Paper Palace' - the gently decaying summer camp in the back woods of Cape Cod where her family has spent every summer for generations. As she passes the house, Elle glances through the screen porch at the uncleared table from a dinner party the previous evening; empty wine glasses, candle wax on the table cloth, echoes of laughter of family and friends. Then she dives beneath the surface of the freezing water to the shocking memory of the sudden passionate encounter she had the night before, up against the wall outside the house, as her husband and mother chatted to the dinner guests inside. 
 
So begins a story that unfolds over 24 hours and across 50 years, as decades of family legacies, love, lies, secrets, and one unspeakable incident in her childhood lead Elle to the precipice of a life-changing decision. Over the next 24 hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her much-loved husband, Peter, and the life she imagined would be hers with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

Miranda Cowley Heller

A breathtaking collection… These poems map a woman’s life with extraordinary precision and skill. Heartbreaking, funny, poignant, hopeful – this is poetry that you didn’t know you needed but will change the way you see the world

How I loved this. A collection of poems that manages to capture a woman’s life in its entirety with all its joy, mystery and harsh unexpected endings. What the Deep Waters Know broke my heart and healed it too. Fans of The Paper Palace will adore it.

Miranda’s poems are living breathing words that are raw, honest and thought provoking. Reading this collection felt like a key turning a tiny hidden lock within. Her poems are brilliant and intentional, you will no doubt come back to these pages time and time again

Jessica Urlichs, The Sunday Times bestselling author of Beautiful Chaos

What the Deep Water Knows takes you on a shiningly intimate journey - you are reader and confidant and you only get to glimpse at what lies below the surface. The chaotic narrative of life and loss re-organized to a waltzing beat of poetry. Silken and barbed all at once

Yael van der Wouden, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of THE SAFEKEEP

It's a rare poet who is able to be open, arresting, and get to the very inner heart of the individual - because it takes serious bravery. I loved it.

A life told in astonishing, unerring verses. The early poems are beautifully opaque, stones glimpsed in cloudy water. Lyrical, brutal, devastating, visionary—through verse a woman’s life emerges, gathers itself, is dismantled, and settles again. These stories are as precise and arresting as icy water

WHAT THE DEEP WATER KNOWS is the debut poetry collection from bestselling author Miranda Cowley Heller, a series of exquisite reflections on love in all its seasons.In poetry that is quick-witted and lyrical, gentle and devastatingly frank, Cowley Heller contemplates time, marriage, and motherhood, and paints a moving portrait of a rich life.

Miranda Cowley Heller

Praise for What the Deep Water Knows

A breathtaking collection… These poems map a woman’s life with extraordinary precision and skill. Heartbreaking, funny, poignant, hopeful – this is poetry that you didn’t know you needed but will chang ...

How I loved this. A collection of poems that manages to capture a woman’s life in its entirety with all its joy, mystery and harsh unexpected endings. What the Deep Waters Know broke my heart and he ...

Miranda’s poems are living breathing words that are raw, honest and thought provoking. Reading this collection felt like a key turning a tiny hidden lock within. Her poems are brilliant and intentional, yo ...

A breathtaking collection… These poems map a woman’s life with extraordinary precision and skill. Heartbreaking, funny, poignant, hopeful – this is poetry that you didn’t know you needed but will chang ...

How I loved this. A collection of poems that manages to capture a woman’s life in its entirety with all its joy, mystery and harsh unexpected endings. What the Deep Waters Know broke my heart and he ...

Miranda’s poems are living breathing words that are raw, honest and thought provoking. Reading this collection felt like a key turning a tiny hidden lock within. Her poems are brilliant and intentional, yo ...

A breathtaking collection… These poems map a woman’s life with extraordinary precision and skill. Heartbreaking, funny, poignant, hopeful – this is poetry that you didn’t know you needed but will chang ...

How I loved this. A collection of poems that manages to capture a woman’s life in its entirety with all its joy, mystery and harsh unexpected endings. What the Deep Waters Know broke my heart and he ...

Miranda’s poems are living breathing words that are raw, honest and thought provoking. Reading this collection felt like a key turning a tiny hidden lock within. Her poems are brilliant and intentional, yo ...

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The book to read based on your favourite Taylor Swift song

So just what happened at the end of The Paper Palace?

The easy reading hack that completely changed my day

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