The Inn at Lake Devine

When I want a fun read, I often turn to Elinor Lipman. The Inn at Lake Devine is probably my favorite Lipman novel. As a child, Natalie's family inquires about a Vermont inn and receives an anti-Semitic reply in return. Natalie feels this scorn deeply and sends letters to the manager and even manages to score an invitation to the inn with a friend. A decade later, she is invited to return and finds that some members of the innkeeper's family are quite different than she expected. Lipman's novels often contain quirky characters that still manage to be quite real. Like the best of her novels, The Inn at Lake Devine is best at depicting the various relationships between characters, both familial and romantic.