The Palace at the End of the Sea: A Novel (Theo Sterling)

The Palace at the End of the Sea is a classic bildungsroman, a story of a young man coming of age in a complicated world. Theo Sterling, our hero, begins his story with the Great Depression in New York City, where his father does his best to keep his garment factory afloat. His life will later take him to a boarding school in England, then to Andalusia as World War II approaches.

The first part of the story felt very familiar to me, though I could not put my finger on why. I soon realized it was because most of the characters felt like stock figures, archetypes meant to illustrate some philosophical point or move the story along. A few of them had moments of depth, but for the most part, what you see on first encountering a character is how they will remain for the rest of their time in the narrative.

Approaching this book as a character-driven novel left me unimpressed, but I enjoyed it more when I took it as a sort of historical parable. I’ll definitely look out for the follow-up book.