Saint X: Chapter Sampler

by Alexis Schaitkin

This excerpt from Saint X, Alexis Schaitkin's riveting debut, contains the first section of the book.

Hailed as a “marvel of a book” and “brilliant and unflinching,” Alexis Schaitkin’s stunning debut, Saint X, is a haunting portrait of grief, obsession, and the bond between two sisters never truly given the chance to know one another.

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men–employees at the resort–are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth–not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? At seven, Claire had been barely old enough to know her: a beautiful, changeable, provocative girl of eighteen at a turbulent moment of identity formation.

As Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, an unlikely attachment develops between them, two people whose lives were forever marked by the same tragedy.

For readers of Emma Cline’s The Girls and Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, Saint X is a flawlessly drawn and deeply moving story that culminates in an emotionally powerful ending.

Genres: Fiction

42 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 10, 2019

About the author

Alexis Schaitkin is the author of Saint X. Her short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. She lives in the Berkshires with her husband and their two children.

Reviews

[Cindy Overstake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so well-written. It was riveting. It took my emotions all over the place. I’m not sure that I liked any of the main characters in the book, but like I said, emotions were all over the place. I guess of all the characters, Clive ended up being the most likable to me. Alison was a jerk in many ways, but kind to her younger sister, Claire. Claire was likable until she became obsessed with
Clive. Clive was probably the character I felt the most sympathy for. He just didn’t know how to be his own person. I’ll look forward to reading something else by Alexis Schaitkin.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alison is a teenager from a wealthy family who is hell-bent on partying with the locals during a family vacation in a Caribbean island. When her body is found and the police do not charge anyone, Alison's younger sister Claire takes up the burden of finding out what happened. With such an unlikable protagonist, it's hard to keep reading this novel. However, the author does bring up good questions about the cost of finding out the truth.

[Joelle Cope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was different, there were a lot of changes in perspective which made it interesting. It definitely makes you think how things are not always what they seem. I especially enjoyed the ending, having lost a parent at a young age I could relate to Emily/Clare’s moment of letting go of her sister’s loss driving her life and choosing to live her life on her own terms.

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5...