Restoration

An American architect travels to rural England in 1984 to restore a centuries-old barn—only to discover that rebuilding a structure means confronting the hidden history of her own family.

As the project unfolds, letters from the past begin to surface, revealing long-buried truths about her mother and the life she thought she understood. What begins as an architectural restoration slowly becomes a reckoning with memory, inheritance, and the stories we carry forward.

What does it mean to rebuild something that time has nearly erased?

In 1984, architect Risa Meier travels from California to rural England to oversee the restoration of a centuries-old tithe barn. Drawn by the mystery and beauty of the structure, she soon finds herself immersed in the rhythms of village life and the quiet gravity of the surrounding landscape.

But as the project unfolds, Risa begins to uncover letters and memories that reopen unresolved questions about her mother, her past, and the life she thought she had carefully constructed. The work of restoring the barn becomes inseparable from a deeper process of reckoning—with family history, love, grief, and the stories we inherit.

Luminous, atmospheric, and deeply thoughtful, Restoration is a novel about memory, place, and the profound act of rebuilding a life.