Cover of The Inn at Lake Devine

The Inn at Lake Devine

It's 1962 and all across America barriers are collapsing. But when Natalie Marx's mother inquires about summer accommodations in Vermont, she gets the following reply: The Inn at Lake Devine is a family-owned resort, which has been in continuous operation since 1922. Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles. For twelve-year-old Natalie, who has a stubborn sense of justice, the words are not a rebuff but an infuriating, irresistible challenge.

Read more

In this beguiling novel, Elinor Lipman charts her heroine's fixation with a small bastion of genteel anti-Semitism, a fixation that will have wildly unexpected consequences on her romantic life. As Natalie tries to enter the world that has excluded her—and succeeds through the sheerest of accidents—The Inn at Lake Devine becomes a delightful and provocative romantic comedy full of sparkling social mischief.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 253 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Inn at Lake Devine? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Inn at Lake Devine. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. King of the Hill: A Memoir Shares books that will change your life
  2. Bee Season Shares fiction, Jewish, contemporary fiction
  3. The Benchley Roundup Shares fiction, humor, books that will change your life
  4. An Almost Perfect Moment Shares fiction, chick lit, general fiction

“People who read The Inn at Lake Devine tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Education of a Gardener
  2. Black Tickets: Stories
  3. Foster
  4. Much Younger Man

“If you want more of the same (women’s fiction about jewish), start with these.”

  1. Songs in Ordinary Time
  2. The Fall of the Year
  3. The Perfect Bride (Harlequin Intrigue 1421)
  4. Crossing to Safety

“If it was the humor that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. American Wife
  2. Seating Arrangements
  3. Hope: A Tragedy
  4. Today Will Be Different

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Joy of Killing
  2. Honeymoon
  3. Lessons in Love
  4. Cowabunga Christmas