The House of Cavanaugh: A Novel [Paperback]

A long-buried secret. A friendship on the brink. A family forever changed.

New York City, 1964. Joan Cavanaugh—a young wife and mother yearning for more falls into a passionate affair with Peter “Hutch” Hutchinson. When the affair ends, she returns to her marriage, raising three daughters with her devoted husband, Graham. For nearly three decades, she keeps her secret locked away, taking the truth of her daughter Anne’s paternity to her grave when she succumbs to cancer in 1989.

Portland, 2014. Carolyn Cavanaugh and Julia Hutchinson are next door neighbors and the closest of friends. But when Carolyn’s father, Graham, visits for Thanksgiving, his path collides with Julia’s parents, Hutch and Alice. The revelation that unfolds following Graham’s trip upends both families, bringing a truth to light that will shake two families to their core.

As decades of deception unravel, bonds are tested, loyalties waver, and the meaning of family is forever redefined.

“The House of Cavanaughis a moving, elegantly told novel about life and death, about familial love and familial secrets, and about how the past persists in the present, no matter how much we’d like to think otherwise. Polly Dugan is a wise and sensitive writer, and with this beautiful novel she’ll break your heart.”—Edan Lepucki,NYTbestselling author ofTime’s MouthandCalifornia

“The House of Cavanaughis a brilliant, gripping novel built around the secrets we keep from the world, and the ones we keep from ourselves. Polly Dugan writes like a dream. Her sentences are piercing and true. This book takes clean aim at the messy truths of the human heart. I couldn’t put it down.”—Steve Almond, author ofAll the Secrets of the WorldandTruth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow

“Polly Dugan writes about the complexitil£+