Staff Pick
Alexis Smith's second book is a suspenseful page-turner. We meet Lucie Bowen after she has survived an attempt on her life. Set on the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, Marrow Island isn't your usual suspense fare. Aside from being the place where Lucie loses her father, now her best friend is entangled in some sort of (eco-terrorist?) group that has set up a commune on the island. Addressing environmental issues, family loss, broken friendships, and cult behavior, Marrow Island is a quick-paced, riveting read. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"Eerie and intriguing...captivates in the first few pages and delivers a gripping, compelling story throughout." — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Smith's excellent command of language gives life to arresting characters and their creepy surroundings, keeping the suspense in this dark environmental thriller running high." — Elle
It has been twenty years since Lucie Bowen left the islands — when the May Day Quake shattered thousands of lives; when Lucie's father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, a tragedy that destroyed the island's ecosystem; and when Lucie and her best friend, Katie, were just Puget Sound children hoping to survive.
Now, Katie writes with strange and miraculous news. Marrow Island is no longer uninhabitable and no longer abandoned. She is part of a community that has managed to conjure life again from Marrow's soil. Lucie returns. Her journalist instincts tell her there's more to this mysterious "Colony" and their charismatic leader — a former nun with an all-consuming plan — than its members want her to know. As she uncovers their secrets, will Lucie endanger more than their mission? And what price will she pay for the truth?
"Transporting." — Vanity Fair
"Beautifully wrought." — O, The Oprah Magazine
"Engrossing and atmospheric, a thorny meditation on environmental responsibility with a big haunted heart." —Laura van den Berg, Miami Herald
Review
"I was already happy to count myself among Alexis Smith's admirers, but Marrow Island has brought me to a new level of fandom. From the intricately suspenseful plotting, the remote and intoxicating atmosphere, and the haunted, flinty heroine at the center, this novel absorbed me with the force of a seaside storm, leaving me awed and breathless." Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me
Review
"Atmospheric, intense, and mysterious — Alexis Smith's Marrow Island is a smart novel, richly peopled and lyrically written. Smith is a writer genuinely at home in the natural world, and willing to write truth, darkness, and beauty into the island landscape. She understands well how environmental pressure translates into human pressure and loss. An important, gripping book." Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Almost Famous Women
Review
"Smith marries haunting, lyrical prose with the page-turning urgency of a thriller. Warnings of the environmental and geological disasters that threaten us are woven seamlessly into a beautifully crafted story of loss, love, and rebuilding. A gorgeous, compelling novel." Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day
Review
"An eerie, haunting mystery." Woman's Day
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"A foreboding, compelling story of humanity's uneasy relationship with nature and with each other, told in lyrical language that continually propels the reader further in....Marrow Island is a gripping read." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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"A wonderfully bewitching story, Alexis M. Smith's second book is as amazing as her first. This novel weaves together her skill with character and a delicious thread of intrigue and mystery." Powell's Midyear Roundup, The Best Books of 2016 So Far
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"Wrenching and limpidly written...Smith is excellent at showing the terrible things people can do for the sake of their ideals...A near-perfect read." Library Journal
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"Marrow Island [is a] marvelously spun post-disaster story. The author reaches into the depths of our connections to our pasts, our loved ones, [and] our devotions." My Edmonds News
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"[Marrow Island] is moody and atmospheric, and her [Smith's] descriptions are stunning...It's quite an immersive reading experience." Fourth Street Review
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"Conjuring a lush and mysterious landscape, Marrow Island investigates the impact of the losses of the past— be they loved ones, failed quests, or the environmental calamities brought on by our collective blindness. By turns elegiac, compelling, and timely, it seeks real answers and finds the possibility of miracles. This is a beautiful novel." Edan Lepucki, author of California
Review
"Returning to the islands of her youth, Lucie Bowen finds her long-lost soulmate caught up with a mysterious commune called Marrow Colony and finds herself with no choice but to face the painful past. At once a page-turner and a sustained lyrical meditation on a beloved landscape, this novel also shines a spotlight on the anxieties of living in a world with such environmental uncertainties. The depth of what we possess — and what we stand to lose — is achingly drawn." Amanda Coplin, author of The Orchardist
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"This alluring novel explores the darkness of love, how it can cajole you into danger or tip your actions toward cruelty. Clean but intoxicating writing...Ambitious." New York Times Book Review
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"Marrow Island is ambitious and provocative. This eloquent and soft-spoken novel ex-plodes as it confronts eco-terrorism, natural disasters, and radical Catholicism...This spellbinding novel takes unexpected turns as it races to its final scene." Signature Reads, 10 Overlooked Books of 2016
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"Excellent....a thoroughly eerie reading experience capped off with a startling conclusion." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
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"Stunning....In graceful and dolorous prose, she captures a dense and dramatic landscape, evoking questions of what it means to harm — ourselves, our surroundings — and to heal. Engrossing eco-fiction, eerie and earnest." Kirkus
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"A compelling, complex meditation on both the power and the vulnerability of the natural world." Booklist
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"Tucked into this suspenseful plot are stunning and important reflections on nature and the environment, its awe-inspiring power and the many ways humanity both detracts from that power and willfully ignores it." Shelf Awareness
Review
"[Marrow Island] is weird and glorious and I loved it. Different from Glaciers, but still wonderful." BookRiot, "Our Most Anticipated Reads of 2016"
About the Author
Alexis M. Smith was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She attended Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, and Goddard College. Her debut novel, Glaciers, was a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award and a selection for World Book Night 2013. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her son.