Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switchGift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingA Crooked Cottage by the Sea
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreSummary
Bar Harbor, Maine: summer of 1967
When Billie Cooper receives a startling medical diagnosis just before a summer-long vacation, she decides to keep it secret. Her husband Derek is a Defense Department official immersed in the Vietnam war effort. Her two sons are backpacking through Europe. She can’t burden them. She has to face the issue alone.
She settles into a beautiful house on a hundred-foot-high cliff just south of Bar Harbor. With her husband often in Washington, D.C., Billie befriends a part-time cook named Lillian Moore. Of Native American heritage, Lillian introduces her to ancient remedies in a desperate attempt to cure what might never be cured. Billie also befriends a senile neighbor, Riley James, a lonely but lovable man who tells preposterous stories and lives in a crooked cottage by the sea, as well as three young girls who joyfully play in a secret fort hidden in nearby woods. This mismatched band of friends, and the clues contained in an overgrown family cemetery, teach Billie the meaning of life, helping her see what she had never before seen. She touches the hearts and souls of those around her, just as they touch hers, friendships formed for eternity.