Zeena
A Novel
In Zeena, Elizabeth Cooke's stirring retelling of Edith Wharton's 1911 masterpiece, the tragic characters and stark New England winter of Ethan Frome are reborn. Though she remains faithful to the original story, Cooke is determined to let Zenobia Frome speak for herself for the first time, and what results is an eloquent, moving, and compelling portrait of a woman trapped by her circumstances and by her own dreams. We see Zeena as a young girl, then a young woman, forced too quickly into adulthood by her mother's death. We see a father as withdrawn and isolated - and yet as much a part of Zeena's character - as the chilly and stolid New England town of her childhood. We see the beginning of her relationship with Ethan, when she's called to take care of her mother's cousin, Ethan's mother, and the course the relationship takes. And we see what happens to Zeena after the terrible coasting accident, after everything she'd hoped for is crushed at the bottom of that dark, icy hill.
