This book transports you across time and continents, into a saga that will captivate you for hours. I loved seeing the clash of viewpoints unfold from the different generations in the book, although you can see it happen in real life, it takes on a whole new meaning watching it happen as an outsider. Watching Theo ping pong between cultures and continents, and struggle with the various faiths and customs, trying to find his place amidst everything. The characters are perhaps the most compelling part of the story, but the setting is vivid, and you really do feel like you’ve stepped through a portal back in time. It’s like watching a movie unfold before your eyes as you read. The pacing is good, not too fast, but it doesn’t lag or make you feel like you’re pushing yourself to finish a book that’s moving too slowly. Highly recommend for historical fiction lovers!

In 1929, New York City, Theo Sterling is caught between different worlds. His father is a Jewish businessman, and his mother is Catholic. Disaster strikes the family, and charismatic friends convince Theo he can fight fascism. Rebellion carries a high price, making him question other ideologies as well.

Simon Tolkien is JRR Tolkien's grandson and an acclaimed author in his own right. He put incredible amounts of research into the first part of this duology, and the second half will be released later this year. Chapters are a little on the longer side, since they outline a defining moment in his life at that period. We start when Theo is eleven, right before the stock market crash, and the divide between his parents and their worlds becomes more obvious to him. Children don't really think about parents or their lives, and he had no cause to question his father's optimism or his mother's deep religious fervor. Both are due to past trauma, and the silence they work with means Theo never really processes it before trauma of his own begins to take root. He's an impressionable teenager needing a parental figure to take notice and give approval. Theo sees how rampant capitalism leads to unscrupulous behavior and loss, and communism involves loss and death as well. The only thing he can be sure of as the 1930s progress is that he's against fascism and destroying people for his own benefit.

Through Theo, we see the wealthy and poor parts of New York City, the upper crust of English boarding school, and the Spanish countryside. Different points of view are presented, and Theo doesn't want to pick a side. He's told that this tactic is essentially still picking a side, largely because picking a side for certain means taking action and potentially getting harmed. He's a teenager and has already gone through significant losses that he's not willing to endure more. But at the same time, he sees the inequalities inherent in the world and is affected by it. "The truth was hidden behind the dishonesty of the picturesque." As the first half of a duology, we get his formative years in the 30's, when different ideologies are on the rise and in competition with each other. Desperation affects people in different ways, and Theo has always been apart from his surroundings, observing and trying to participate at times without true belief. It will be interesting to see in the second half what will push him to fully commit himself.

The Palace at the End of the Sea
by Simon Tolkien
Pub Date: Jun 01 2025

New York City, 1929. Young Theo Sterling’s world begins to unravel as the Great Depression exerts its icy grip. He finds it hard to relate to his parents: His father, a Jewish self-made businessman, refuses to give up on the American dream, and his mother, a refugee from religious persecution in Mexico, holds fast to her Catholic faith. When disaster strikes the family, Theo must learn who he is. A charismatic school friend and a firebrand girl inspire him to believe he can fight Fascism and change the world, but each rebellion comes at a higher price, forcing Theo to question these ideologies too.

From New York’s Lower East Side to an English boarding school to an Andalusian village in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Theo’s harrowing journey from boy to man is set against a backdrop of societies torn apart from within, teetering on the edge of a terrible war to which Theo is compulsively drawn like a moth to a flame.

This was a tricky one for me to review, I enjoyed parts of the book and became engrossed but quite a lot of the book I was bored, it felt slow and stale, I didn't really get to know any of the characters well or care and so I can't really say this was a hit with me, I know its a series so maybe it will get better and this was building up a whole story for later books.

The Palace at the End of the Sea is a book that transports the reader to different cultures at different times. Using the book as a voice, the author very beautifully and meticulously approaches holy customs, lineage, and progressive thinking while keeping the storyline engaging and interesting.

Some parts of the book stand out more than others. It is like watching a tense and riveting movie scene unfold before you when the story's characters get confrontational, questioning customs and traditions linked to the faiths they follow. The author succinctly shows the points of view of three generations of the Stern/Sterling sons, each zealously defending their opinions and decisions about the old and the new.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Back to the review. There is a constant dialog or self-introspection about the dichotomy of one's beliefs, and the perennial dilemma about wanting to blend in (read when in Rome, do as the Romans do), or be steadfast about carrying the rituals and customs of our ancestors.

To quote the author, 'Michael Sterling was not a religious man, but he had an unswerving faith in his adopted country.'

Theo's father Michael rebelled against his parent's beliefs to accommodate his non-Jewish wife. The author handles this topic ever so gently, yet explains it with lucid and crystal-clear prose.

This book taught me many new things about Jewish customs. I have worked with Jewish people and know some basics, but this was different. For example, I learned about 'Silent Shiva.' I also discovered that the Jewish holy book, the Torah is kept in a container called a 'mezuzah.'

This book is also a 1930's travel guide to New York. From shimmering churches to Coney Island, and everywhere in between, the reader is taken on a first-class tour across the Big Apple. I'm sure those who live in NY would relate to these places much more. Yours truly took Google Maps' help to relate to the parts in the story to assimilate the picture in my head better.

The first Theo series novel was exciting, and I look forward to reading the next one!

Did not finish. The plot was not holding my attention. The writing was good and the time period was interesting, but I wasn't connecting.

Well written with compelling characters that feel true to life with nuance and heart. A depressing tale for me, though.

This is Theo’s story. It’s 1929 in NYC and his young life is about to be upended by the Depression.

His father, a non-practicing Jew, is almost giddy with his belief in the AMerican Dream. He wants nothing to do with the old life or his Jewish parents. His mother is a religious refugee from Mexico and holds fast to her Catholic faith.

Theo has no idea of any of this however, until his Grandfather shows up and tells him.

He will go on to search for his own identity.

I didn’t feel that the characters were believable. Very one not.

Very long and not that interesting.


June 01, 2025 Lake Union Publishing/ NetGalley

This was a strong start to the Theo Sterling series, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the historical setting in this. The characters worked well in the setting and it was a strong overall package. Simon Tolkien has a strong writing style and left me wanting to read more.

*Many thanks to Simon Tolkien, lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I enjoyed one of the Author's other novels, so was thrilled to have been granted a copy of his latest offering. Unfortunately, I did not find much that appealed to me.
Theo Sterling as a child finds out about his background that is denied by his father, and over next years he tries to define his identity. The story starts in New York just before the Depression, and continues in Europe where, thanks to his mother's second marriage, he is given an opportunity to observe different environments.
The novel is easy to read, but characters do not develop as the story progresses, and I found them rather unbelievable, for instance Theo's mother and his step-father's relationship or de Lisle's fascination for Bolshevik Russia seemed implausible, or perhaps as a reader I was not fully convinced by the Author.
This book is Volume 1, and I hope Volume 2 is more captivating.

i was not really a big fan of this book. it was too political and war heavy, and I know the synopsis mentioned it, but it was still too much in here where it was like a textbook at times. It was overbearing to the entire storyline'

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Incredible historical fiction from a time period other than WWII which is hammered in so tightly compared to so many other incredible pieces of history that also should be focused on. I absolutely enjoyed this book and all that was told. Masterfully told.

Brilliantly immersive historical fiction. I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed a historical fiction novel so much since Follett.
Through the protagonist Theo Starling you viscerally feel all the contradictions and paradoxes of 19th century politics. My first experience of this author but definitely not my last.
Thank you NetGalley for the eArc

This novel follows Theo Sterling through his adolescence. His journey starts in New York when he gets taken by his paternal grandfather and learns that he is part Jewish. His father comes to get him when he realizes where he is. Theo is a very intelligent boy who doesn't feel close to his father, who runs his own business, nor does he feel support from his mother, who is a Mexican refugee. Theo is forced to leave school at the young age of 14 to join his father in running his business during the Great Depression. From then on, Theo is challenged throughout his journey in life as he moves to England and becomes friends with a Communist student at his boarding school.

I find this novel at times to be incredibly boring. I love historical fiction, but for the first novel in the series, I felt like too much was going on at times while also giving nothing exciting or impactful. Theo is going through life learning to determine who he is and what type of person he is going to be, but he just came across as wishy-washy and sort of limp as a character at certain times in the book. I kept forgetting this is going to be a series of books, so I am keeping an open mind and I'm still interested to see where this series goes in regards to development in story line and character development. I did not like the ending however, it just felt like it was cut off short, but once again had to remind myself this is the first book, so maybe that was on purpose.