The Shared Life of Egan and Lucian
An epic, sweeping, and engrossing debut novel about identical twin brothers, the woman they both love, and the rugged and beautiful Maine island they all call home
Coming in November 2026
“The Shared Life of Egan and Lucian doesn’t read like a debut novel, but that—somehow—is what it is. Characters as vividly real as your neighbors? An unforgettable setting? A propulsive plot? They’re all here, and Rose Smith is a writer to watch.”
Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Fool novels
“Atmospheric and quietly powerful, The Shared Life of Egan and Lucian explores twinship, love, and identity on a Maine island where memory and rivalry bind two lives. A striking debut about family—what holds, what loosens, and what we cannot leave behind.”
Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game and Little Monsters
“With graceful prose and an attentive eye for the complexities and contradictions of love, Rose Smith has fashioned a saga of family romance and betrayal that held me in its grip from its opening sentence through to its bracing end.”
Marisa Silver, author of At Last
“The Shared Life of Egan and Lucian is a celebration of both an extraordinary family and the way the intensities of some of our most passionate bonds can weather any number of demoralizing secrets and betrayals. It’s also masterful on the way that that same fierce focus can blind even the most self-aware. Rose Smith’s debut is an arresting and lyrical reminder of all there is to cherish and how quickly it can all go away.”
Jim Shepard, author of The Queen of Bad Influences