“Restoration” A debut novel by Carol Davis presented at Books and Books

Description

The book’s protagonist, Risa Meier, is a restoration architect in 1984 San Francisco, building a career in a field that wasn’t yet ready to take women seriously. When she takes on the restoration of a centuries-old tithe barn in Wiltshire, England, the work becomes inseparable from her own life: an estranged mother, old wounds, and the question of what’s worth saving and how.

What makes the novel special is that Carol writes about architecture the way practitioners experience it, with an eye for materials, craft, and the quiet judgment calls that shape a building’s future. Risa’s professional struggles and her vision for the barn feel true, and the parallels between repairing a structure and repairing a life will resonate with all of us.