The world cannot give

"When the shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan's Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic "prep school prophet" (and St. Dunstan's alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at 19, fighting in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Burton, Tara Isabella (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2022.
Edition:First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
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Summary:"When the shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan's Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic "prep school prophet" (and St. Dunstan's alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at 19, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school's cultic chapel choir: presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss, who is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster's novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new, reformist school chaplain challenges Virginia's hold on the "family" she has created, and Virginia's efforts to hold onto her power become increasingly destructive, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go. THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE is a meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more than the world can give"--
Physical Description:307 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN:9781982170066
1982170069
Author Notes:Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novels Here in Avalon , The World Cannot Give , and Social Creature , which was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times , Vulture , and The Guardian . She is also the author of the nonfiction books Strange Rites and Self-Made . She has written on religion, culture, and place for The New York Times , National Geographic , The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal , and more. She received a doctorate in theology from Trinity College, Oxford.