The Sea by John Banville

An elderly widower returns to the seaside place where his family had vacationed for years. He tells the story of his relationship to a wealthy family who also vacationed in the area when he was a boy, reliving the past while trying to make sense of life without his wife. It is hard to sympathize with the narrator because at times he comes across as a nasty old man. Even though The Sea won England's prestigious Man Booker prize, I am not very impressed with it. The writing (described on the back cover as "elegiac") was a little too artsy for me and the story a little too meandering.