Maine has this incredible way of inspiring stories. Its rocky coasts, quiet towns, deep woods, and resilient people create a backdrop for all sorts of tales – from historical journeys and family sagas to deep mysteries and chilling horror.
If you love getting lost in a place through books, here are twenty novels that bring the spirit of Maine to life, each with its own unique story to tell.
Sarah Orne Jewett welcomes readers into Dunnet Landing, a small Maine fishing village in the late 19th century. A writer visits the town and spends time with the locals.
You meet unforgettable people like Almira Todd, who knows all the local herbs and their uses, and the retired Captain Littlepage, who recounts haunting sea stories. The book lets the quiet atmosphere and the distinct character of coastal Maine speak for themselves.
Elizabeth Strout introduces us to Olive Kitteridge in the town of Crosby, Maine. Olive is a retired schoolteacher, and she’s certainly memorable – sometimes sharp, sometimes surprisingly kind. This book unfolds through thirteen connected stories.
We see Olive through her own eyes and through the experiences of her husband, son, and neighbors. One story shows a painful confrontation with her son that reveals deep family tensions.
Richard Russo takes us to Empire Falls, a faded mill town in Maine. Miles Roby runs the Empire Grill diner, and his life feels stuck. He’s tangled up with the wealthy Whiting family, who seem to own everything, including his choices.
He deals with a complicated relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, plus a web of old family secrets. It’s a story about how lives intertwine in a small town where escape seems impossible.
Elizabeth Strout brings Olive Kitteridge back. Olive is older now, still living in Crosby, Maine, and maybe a little changed by time. This novel again uses interconnected stories that show Olive as she deals with getting older, finds new relationships, and reflects on her life.
We also meet other townspeople, and their stories add layers to this picture of community, loss, and connection in coastal Maine.
Anita Shreve’s novel has a photographer named Jean travel to the Isles of Shoals off the Maine coast. She researches a brutal double murder that happened there over a century ago.
As Jean learns more about the historical crime, involving two women accused of axe murder, her own modern-day relationships start to fracture under pressure. The narrative jumps between Jean’s investigation and the chilling events of the past.
Stephen King sets this mystery on Moose-Lookit Island, Maine. Two old-timers who run the island newspaper share a decades-old unsolved case with their young intern. Years ago, a man was found dead on the beach.
He had no identification, no wallet, nothing to explain who he was or how he arrived. The focus isn’t just on solving the puzzle but on the nature of mysteries that might never have neat answers.
Gary D. Schmidt tells the story of Turner Buckminster, new to Phippsburg, Maine, in 1912. He’s the son of the town’s stern minister and feels like an outsider. Then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from Malaga Island, a nearby community founded by formerly enslaved people.
Their friendship forms against a backdrop of prejudice, as the Phippsburg town leaders scheme to remove the Malaga islanders. Turner must confront the town’s intolerance.
Kate Douglas Wiggin wrote this classic about Rebecca Rowena Randall, a lively girl full of imagination. She leaves her family farm to live with her two strict, practical aunts in Riverboro, Maine.
Rebecca’s sunny personality often clashes with her aunts’ rigid ways, but her spirit gradually brings warmth and change to their lives and the community. It’s a story about resilience and finding your place.
Stephen King’s novel centers on Mike Noonan, a bestselling author paralyzed by grief after his wife Jo dies suddenly. He suffers from writer’s block and disturbing nightmares. He retreats to their summer home, Sara Laughs, on Dark Score Lake in western Maine.
The house feels haunted, and Mike soon discovers the local town has a dark, hidden history. He gets involved with a young widow and her daughter, who are threatened by a powerful, wealthy man.
Judith Rossner based this novel on a true story from 19th-century Maine. Emmeline Mosher is just thirteen when her family sends her from their farm to work in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts (though the impact resonates back in Maine).
Young and inexperienced, she becomes involved with the mill owner’s son. This leads to a secret pregnancy and choices that will echo throughout her entire life when she returns to Maine.
Jack Ketchum’s horror novel is set in the remote coastal town of Dead River, Maine. A group of New Yorkers rents a cabin for a quiet getaway. Their vacation becomes a fight for survival when a family of feral, cannibalistic humans emerges from nearby caves to hunt them.
The book is known for its intensity and graphic depiction of the terrifying ordeal.
Rachel Field’s historical novel takes place in Maine during the 1740s. Marguerite Ledoux, a young French girl, is orphaned and becomes indentured to the Sargent family. They are pioneers who settle on a remote island off the coast.
Marguerite helps the family build a life in the wilderness. She faces harsh winters, isolation, difficult farm work, and uneasy relations with the local Penobscot people. Her strength helps her adapt to this challenging new world.
Rachel Field also wrote this unique story narrated by Hitty, a small wooden doll carved from mountain ash. Hitty begins her life with Phoebe Preble in Maine during the whaling era. Over a hundred years, Hitty passes through many hands.
She travels the world, survives a shipwreck, becomes part of a snake charmer’s act in India, and experiences vastly different lives. Her perspective offers a fascinating journey through history.
T. M. Gray sets this horror story in Havenwood, a small Maine town plagued by disappearances and local legends. A group of friends decides to explore the abandoned Blackwood Manor on the edge of town.
Inside, they uncover disturbing secrets connected to the town’s past and a supernatural force that still lingers there, waiting for new victims.
Elizabeth George Speare tells the story of thirteen-year-old Matt Hallowell in 1768. His father leaves him alone to guard their newly built cabin in the Maine wilderness while he goes back to Massachusetts to get the rest of the family. Matt must survive on his own for months.
He encounters Attean, a Native American boy from the Beaver clan. Attean teaches Matt essential survival skills, and despite cultural differences, a cautious respect and friendship develop between them.
Paul Harding’s novel focuses on George Crosby, an elderly clock repairman, as he lies dying in his Massachusetts home. His mind drifts through memories, especially those of his father, Howard.
Howard was an epileptic who traveled rural Maine as a peddler, selling household goods and fixing things before abandoning his family.
The narrative flows between George’s final thoughts and vivid episodes from Howard’s life in the Maine woods, exploring themes of time, nature, and family legacy.
Aoibheann Sweeney’s debut novel introduces Miranda, who grows up isolated on Crab Island, Maine, with her father, a scholar obsessed with Ovid. Her world is books and the rugged landscape.
When she finally leaves for college in New York City, she seeks answers about her absent mother and her family’s hidden past. The story contrasts the solitude of Maine with the energy of the city as Miranda works to understand love and her own identity.
Elisabeth Ogilvie brings Bennett’s Island, a fictional Maine fishing community, to life. Philippa Marshall arrives from the mainland as the new schoolteacher.
She must adapt to the island’s independent, sometimes suspicious, residents and the challenges of their isolated way of life. Philippa finds herself drawn into the island’s dramas and develops a deep connection to the place and its people, particularly a lobsterman named Steve.
The story shows her growth against the backdrop of the beautiful but demanding Maine coast.
Ashley Herring Blake writes about twelve-year-old Hazel Bly. She and her mother move to Rose Harbor, Maine, trying to heal after a family tragedy connected to water that left Hazel with physical and emotional scars.
Hazel is afraid of the ocean but meets Lemon Howard, a local girl full of stories about mermaids. Their friendship helps Hazel confront her fears and grief. The coastal Maine setting is central to the story of finding hope after loss.
Paul Harding draws inspiration from the true history of Malaga Island, Maine. His novel depicts Apple Island, settled generations ago by a mixed-race group of outcasts. They form a unique, self-sufficient community.
In the early 20th century, authorities from the mainland, driven by prejudice and eugenics theories, decide the islanders must be removed.
The story powerfully portrays the community’s resilience, their connection to their island home, and the devastating impact when their world is destroyed.