Bride Island

by Alexandra Enders

Overview

Six years ago, Polly Birdswell—drinking and deeply unhappy—made a decision that changed her life forever. Believing she could spare her young daughter a legacy of self-destruction, she left her husband and child and moved north to a coastal town in Maine. There, close to Bride Island, the beloved family retreat she considers her true home, she set about getting sober and remaking her life. 

Now Polly desperately wants seven-year-old Monroe back and is determined to prove—to herself especially—she’s a stable and loving mother. At the same time, a sudden decision to sell Bride Island unleashes a wave of family greed that endangers the island’s future. As Polly and her siblings try to claim ownership of what they love, they discover some things can never truly be owned, and Polly must again ask herself what she’s willing to relinquish. Beautifully written and emotionally complex, Bride Island is a poignant debut novel about love, motherhood, and the haunting and sometimes conflicting pulls of family and the places that shape us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101213421
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/26/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	390 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

What People are Saying About This

Beth Gutcheon

Taut and moving, quirky, wise, often funny and finally deeply surprising. Enders takes some big risks and finesses all of them. (Beth Gutcheon, author of More Than You Know and Leeway Cottage)

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Enders writes with such bone-deep honesty we know from the opening pages that it is winner take all. (Jacquelyn Mitchard, author, The Deep End of the Ocean)

Roxana Robinson

A strong and beautiful book, full of the power and beauty of the Maine coast. Enders has a deep understanding of the world of emotional engagement. This is an impressive debut. (Roxana Robinson, author of This is My Daughter and Sweetwater)

Editorial Reviews

Polly Birdswell has been sober for four years and deems herself fit to regain custody of seven-year-old Monroe, whom she left as a baby, but her ex-husband disagrees. In addition to fighting for Monroe, Polly also wants the Maine island-home of childhood vacations and the sacred ground where her brother died-that her hard-drinking stepfather wants to sell. Polly's obsession with the island becomes as tiresome as the uninspired prose. Though novels of abandoned daughters may abound, stories from the mother's perspective are less common; unfortunately, the issue is hardly explored and what could have been provocative falls flat. Polly is repeatedly asked how she could have given up Monroe, but Enders fails to grasp the opportunity to give an insightful answer. Efforts to signify the island as a place of healing and salvation are heartfelt, but dull characters mired in a plodding plot defeat a promising concept. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly