Eight top works of fiction set in Maine

Elise Juska’s latest novel, Reunion, was named one of People Magazine’s “Best Books to Read in May 2024.” Her previous novels include The Blessings, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and If We Had Known. Juska’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize from Ploughshares, and her short fiction has been cited by The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. 

[The Page 69 Test: Reunion; My Book, The Movie: Reunion]

At Tertulia Juska tagged her favorite fiction set in Maine. One title on the list:

Beneficence by Meredith Hall

Doris and Tup and their three children live on a dairy farm in the 1950s. Theirs is an idyllic existence, focused on the satisfactions of work and family, until an unspeakable tragedy befalls them, marking the end of life as they knew it. The aftermath is painful but described in some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue