by Tara Karr Roberts (Roberts)
Call her Evangeline. Evangeline Hussey. In the mid 1800’s, a young woman on her own, Evangeline has come to Nantucket to find her fortune and start a new life. She marries an innkeeper, but when he disappears at sea, she is on her own again. Knowing that as a single woman, she would be ousted from the Try Pots Inn, she resorts to using her unique ability to cloud people’s memories to make the townsfolk believe her husband would be home soon.
Her inn becomes a gathering place
for men who are headed to sea, including the young Ishmael and his companion
Queequeg, who you might remember from their adventures in another book where
they were chasing a certain whale…This story runs parallel to that one and the
plots occasionally crisscross.
Evangeline’s descendants have their
own quest, their own “white whale” that they are pursuing, and the women in her
family each has a similar but different ability that they use in their pursuit
of answers. I enjoyed this touch of magic surrealism, it felt authentic and
possible.
Wild and Distant Seas is an
interesting and pleasant read. There’s strife and troubles, no doubt, but they
are handled in, I can’t help but say, in a way similar to books I really
enjoyed when I was young, such as A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
There’s bad things that happen, but magical good things as well and you know
everything is going to turn out well in the end. Sometimes, that’s exactly the
kind of read you are looking for.
It’s a classic tale with women at
the helm. And the cover is beautiful.
(If you enjoy this, you may also
wish to try A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee, The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara, or The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh.)
( official Tara Karr Roberts
web site )
Recommended
by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you read or listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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