Spinning at the Edges: A Novel

“Spinning at the Edges is, simply, a marvel.”—Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World

From the author of the acclaimed As Close to Us as Breathing, a captivating novel steeped in history that reveals the bonds of family and community and the healing powers hidden inside broken hearts.

For much of her adult life Ruth Pearl has lived in Wells, Connecticut, on the shore of Lake Topaqua. Decades back, when she was fourteen, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister, Sophia. In the wake of such loss, Ruth has long taken comfort in the natural beauty of her lake view.

But in the winter of 2000, Ruth’s neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth’s view, a disruption of her peace that sparks fear that her tumultuous past is happening again.

One day, as Ruth heads to the lake for a cathartic skate, she spots a boy falling through the ice. Also witnessing this event is Judge Arthur Cantrell, in Wells to avoid the consequences of a failed romance.

Together, Ruth and Arthur save Ian Lima, a despairing sixteen-year-old, and as Ruth and Arthur help Ian heal, they find themselves, and those closest to them, healing too.

Elizabeth Poliner seamlessly interweaves a rich cast of characters in two historical time periods—America 2000, marked by a controversial presidential election, and Netherlands 1941, marked by deadly fascism—to tell an unforgettable story about how the past haunts the present, how sharing pain heals, and how love and even democracy are fragile concepts in an ever-changing, spinning world.