The Paper Palace: A Novel 

According to Parade, The Paper Palace is filled with love, secrets, lies and a summer beach house. What more could you want? 

Reese Witherspoon picked the book during the Reese’s Book Club in July ’21 and said, it’s a love story full of emotions. A very complex love triangle that’s full of unraveling lies. 

Town & Country D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author says it’s nail biting. 

The New York Times says it’s an irresistible placing of a family in a bewitched place. 

What does The Paper Palace hold

A story no less, but is it worthy is the question you always ask when you want to buy a novel. 

Well,  the reviews and instant #1 New York Times bestseller position is definitely given for a reason but, what’s the story? 

The Paper Palace story 

The story of a summer filled with love, lies and secrets. A singular day course on Cape Cod will allow one woman to make a life-changing decision that was brewing for decades. 

The story revolves around Elle 

Elle is a fifty-year old happily married mother of three. The story behind on a perfect July morning at the Paper Palace where the family spends their summer vacations. 

But this morning is going to be different from all she spent here as last night she and Jonas, her childhood friend went out in the nights darkness and had sex as their spouses were chatting inside. 

Now Elle has to decide in the next twenty-four hours, does she want to stay with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, or live with Jonas and live the life she had dreamt of on having children with her childhood love, had a tragic event not changed their future forever. 

Heller very beautifully expresses the experience that led Elle to this day and on her taking the ultimate decision with all the complexities involved. 

The Paper Palace is tender yet devastating. The tensions have been neatly placed in words, be it desire and dignity, the crimes, the legacies of abuse or the misdemeanors of families.

About the author 

Miranda Cowley Heller grew up in New York. She’s a Harvard graduate and worked as Head Head of Drama Series at HBO. She goes up-down between Los Angeles, London and Cape Cod.

The Paper Palace is her first novel that has multiple detailed descriptions of incest, sexual assault, rape, and other sexual abuse against children. These are the major themes of the book and are with detailed descriptions of the horrors.