Anita Shreve's New Hampshire Beach House Series

Rather than writing a true series based on the same characters, Anita Shreve does things slightly differently. She continuously features the same setting, down to the house structure, in several of her novels. Shreve's work is poetic, and spans more than a hundred years of the house's history. And a rich history it has, as a large structure which was once a convent. The house is on the beach on the shores of New Hampshire, and in it Shreve's characters live a thousand lives and die a thousand deaths.

• The Weight of Water (1997): While not actually set at the beach house, this novel is set on the Isles of Shoals, just off the New Hampshire beach coast.
• The Pilot's Wife (1998): Although the first written, this is actually the third in chronological order of Shreve's novels set at the beach house in New Hampshire.
  
• Fortune's Rocks (1999): Set in 1889, this novel serves as the first chronological novel set at the beach house. In the novel, it is the summer estate of a fictional Boston Brahmin family (the Biddefords) and the main character is daughter Olympia.
  
• The Last Time They Met (2001): While not set in New Hampshire at all, one of the novel's main characters -- poet Thomas -- is the husband of Jean, the main character in The Weight of Water. Thomas is also a character in Water.
  
• Sea Glass (2002): This is chronologically the second novel set in the beach house, as it tells the story of couple Sexton and Honora Beecher during the Great Depression.
  
• Body Surfing (2007): This is the fourth novel set in the beach house, both by publication date and by chronology. The Edwards family uses it as a summer home.