Synopses & Reviews
Casting Off: 1. Ending a knitted work.
2. Releasing lines holding a boat to its mooring.
3. Letting go...
On a tiny island off the west coast of Ireland, the fishermen's handmade sweaters tell a story. Each is unique-feelings stitched into rows, memories into patterns.
It is here that Rebecca Moray comes to research a book on Irish knitting. With her daughter, Rowan, accompanying her, she hopes to lose herself in the history of the island and forget her own painful past. Soon, the townsfolk's warm embrace wraps Rebecca and Rowan in a world of friendship, laughter, and love.
And it is here that young Rowan befriends Sean Morahan, a cantankerous old fisherman, despite his attempts to scare her off. As Rebecca watches her daughter interact with Morahan, she recognizes in his eyes a look that speaks of a dark knowledge not unlike her own. And when current storms threaten to resurrect old ones, Morahan and Rebecca find themselves on a collision course-with Rowan caught between them-each buffeted by waves of regret and recrimination. Only by walking headfirst into the winds will they find the faith to forgive without forgetting...and reach the shore.
Review
Praise for Casting Off “A beautiful novel of letting go, healing, and redemption. Setting her story in the west of Ireland, Nicole Dickson draws the reader deeply into the magic of a mystical land. A stunning debut.”—New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs
“A remarkable novel about finding your true home, and of holding on and letting go. With lilting and lyrical language, Dickson immerses the reader in the lives and histories of a cluster of tightly knit families on an island off the coast of Ireland. I could hear the soft Irish voices and taste the salty spray of the ocean as Dickson worked her storytelling magic, creating characters as complex and beautiful as the Irish sweaters at the heart of the story. This was a hard-to-put-down book, and Im already anticipating the next offering from this wonderful author.”—New York Times bestselling author Karen White
“With a pattern as intricate as the sweaters knit in the novel, Nicole Dickson weaves her words into a powerful story of redeeming love and forgiveness. Casting Off grabbed my heart on page one and didnt let go until the last breathtaking sentence.”— New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry
Review
"In
The Widow's Season, Brodie draws on literary traditions, but hides the academic stuff under the flow of smart dialogue and sharp detail. This is a work of craft and imagination."
-Roanoke Times
"In The Widow's Season, Laura Brodie confronts all the twists and turns of grief and loss, love and marriage, and the human heart with honesty, humor, and great intelligence. This novel is spellbinding, right up to its surprising and poignant final page."
-Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle
"The Widow's Season is far more than what it seems to be at first - a straightforward story of a woman getting used to a crushing loss. It's smarter, slyer, and more unconventional than that. It's haunting-and haunted too."
-Elizabeth Benedict, author of Almost and The Practice of Deceit
Synopsis
Deep in the Shenandoah Valley, the present and the past are as restless as the river mists. And when they collide, the heart is the only compass pointing home.
For nurse Ginger Martin, her late husbands farm is both a treasured legacy and the harbinger of an uncertain future. Since he was recently killed in Iraq, every day is fraught with grief that wont abate. Keeping the farm going and nourishing her childrens hopes without him seems as impossible as having dreams for the futureor going back into the past....
By a curious coincidence, a stranger appears in Gingers life, always showing up to help in unexpected and much-needed ways. He says hes a soldier, lost and trying to make his way home, but Ginger understands that Samuel is a kindred spirit, longing to repair a life interrupted. The challenges of their hopes and longings will test who they really are in the most heartbreaking of ways. And only by coming to terms with their losses and the necessity of change will Ginger and Samuel be able to each make a future of their ownand discover at last where their true home lies....
Synopsis
A mesmerizing debut novel about love, grief, and the ghosts who show up where we least expect them. Sarah McConnell's husband had been dead for three months when she saw him in the grocery store.
What does a woman do when she's thirty-nine, childless, and completely alone for the first time in her life? Does it mean she's crazy to think she sees her late husband beside a display of pumpkins? Or is it just what people do, a natural response to grief that will fade in time? That's what Sarah McConnell's friends told her, that it was natural, would last a season, and then fade away.
But what if there was another answer? What if he was really there? They never found the body, after all. What if he is still here somehow, and about to walk back into her life?
Synopsis
A mesmerizing debut novel about love, grief, and the ghosts who show up where we least expect them. Sarah McConnell's husband had been dead for three months when she saw him in the grocery store.
What does a woman do when she's thirty-nine, childless, and completely alone for the first time in her life? Does it mean she's crazy to think she sees her late husband beside a display of pumpkins? Or is it just what people do, a natural response to grief that will fade in time? That's what Sarah McConnell's friends told her, that it was natural, would last a season, and then fade away.
But what if there was another answer? What if he was really there? They never found the body, after all. What if he is still here somehow, and about to walk back into her life?
About the Author
Laura Brodie is a Harvard graduate and visiting professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. Her first book, Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women, was published by Pantheon to critical acclaim. Her memoir, One Good Year: Love in a Time of Homeschooling, is forthcoming from Harper. The Widow’s Season, her first novel, won the 2005 Faulkner Society/Evans Harrington Grant for Best Novel-in-Progress. Laura lives with her husband and their three daughters in Lexington, Virginia.