Cape Cod Tales
Alexander Theroux
April 16, 2024
ISBN 9798218383602 / Hardcover / 386 pages / $29.99
ISBN 9798218383626 / Paperback / 386 pages / $22.99

As its title suggests, Cape Cod Tales unfolds on the windswept, sea-facing, hook-shaped peninsula that has drawn settlers, wanderers, and storytellers since the "First Comers" arrived in 1620. Set in the nineteenth century, Alexander Theroux's new work of fiction gathers three richly imagined novellas, each centered on a compelling Cape Cod native of distinct age, temperament, and vocation: Horatio Rock, a photographer from West Barnstable; Austin Paper, a teenage cook aboard the fishing vessel Belle of Medford braving the treacherous Atlantic; and Jacob Scissors, an old-style carpenter hired to renovate a meetinghouse in the venerable village of Sandwich.

For Theroux, Cape Cod is far more than a colorful setting. The peninsula, with its mercurial weather, harsh beauty, and storied history, serves as a living counterpart to the characters themselves. Adding to the pleasure of these tales, each novella features a cameo by a different iconic American, whose unexpected appearance subtly but decisively reshapes the plot.

Twice nominated for the National Book Award and short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize, Theroux has lived on Cape Cod for the past fifty years, and Cape Cod Tales stands as both a tribute to and a reinvention of the place he knows best.