In an “intricately satisfying story about love and deception,” an old woman shares her childhood with a troubled teen and uncovers a decades-old mystery (Kirkus Reviews).
Though her mind is still sharp, Elizabeth’s eyes have failed. No longer able to linger over her beloved books or gaze at the paintings that move her spirit, she fills the void with music and memories of her family, especially her beloved twin sister, Emily. When her late father’s journals are discovered after an accident, the past suddenly becomes all too present.
With the help of Morgan, a delinquent teenager performing community service at her senior home, Elizabeth goes through the diaries, a journey through time that brings the two women closer together. Entry by entry, these unlikely friends are drawn deep into a world far removed from their own, to Porphyry Island on Lake Superior, where Elizabeth’s father manned the lighthouse and raised his young family seventy years before.
As the words on these musty pages come alive, Elizabeth and Morgan begin to realize that their fates are connected to the isolated island in ways they never dreamed. While the discovery of Morgan’s connection sheds light onto her own family mysteries, the faded pages of the journals will shake the foundation of everything Elizabeth thinks she knows and bring the secrets of the past into the light.
“A perfect hammock read for those who love the Brontë sisters and Jodi Picoult in equal measure.” —Publishers Weekly
“Fans of Heather Young and Jojo Moyes might want to look into Jean Pendziwol.” —Library Journal
Jean E. Pendziwol was born in Thunder Bay, on the shores of Lake Superior, and spent much of her childhood aboard her family’s sailboat, exploring the islands of the inland sea. She is the author of nine books for children. She was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for her picture book, Once Upon a Northern Night, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. She lives in the shadow of Ontario’s Nor’Wester Mountains.
