I didn't have any expectations coming into this story. This had more narrators than I was expecting. So it kind of made it difficult for me to get into. The writing was nice and covered important topics, but the pacing was just a bit off for me.

"Vigil Harbor" by Julia Glass was a surprising novel about a quiet town by the sea, where all the neighbors supposedly know one another, yet so much lays below the surface, and in peoples' pasts and hearts. A wonderful story of many characters with personal intertwined stories, with unexpected twists. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy, all opinions are my own.

This book was really unsettling in the best way. In the near future, when the Massachusetts coast is beset with constant climate crises, political instability and the remains of the pandemic, the town of Vigil Harbor literally stands above the rest, sheltered up on a cliff where the world's problems are present but not invasive. This book tells the story of what happens when those problems do come home to roost.

This book might have had too many narrators, making the storylines a little disparate. In particular, there was one storyline with a vaguely supernatural element that did not feel as though it fit in with the rest of the narrative and I really disliked. It also took quite a while for the action to start. The first half had a ton of (mostly interesting) exposition which made me feel as though I was taking forever to get through it.

This is my first Julia Glass novel and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC.

Thank you for this ARC! This book had a very interesting concept which I was excited to read! There may have been too many narrators for it to flow effectively. It did take some time, but I got into the characters and the story. It is a book that requires a lot of attention. It might be the case of wrong book, wrong time, as work is very distracting for me right now and I couldn't fully focus on the story. I may reread it when I am in a different place, as I do enjoy this genre of books set in the not too distant future.

What an incredibly powerful book. I've only read a few books that tackle post-pandemic and Vigil Harbor does it wonderfully. The story takes place 10 years after the pandemic, in a time when the supply chain still can be a challenge, our natural resources are declining, certain marine life is becoming extinct, and terror attacks and violence is becoming a daily norm.

While reading, I felt like I was reading a detailed account of what our future may hold. But with Glass' prose and writing, it was an incredible story with several characters stories all intertwined. I also could picture where the story was located, growing up only about 30 minutes north of Gloucester. It's a very deep book, with a lot of characters, but beautifully written. It will leave in deep thought.

I definitely recommend checking it out.

4/5 stars

Thank you, Knopf, Pantheon and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

In what seems to be the future, Vigil Harbor, Massachusetts, "an almost-island," nearly completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and raised high on cliffs, has been mostly sheltered from the worst of modern life but now its inhabitants face a rash of divorces, effects of climate change and terrorism.

This story set in a small coastal town near Massachusetts 10 years post Covid. Centered around several community members that are all interconnected. With the community still overwhelmed with grief, a divorce that rocks the community and a terrorist attack in nearby Cambridge, this sets the tone for the entire novel. Rich with complications, a lot of backstory, you start to feel for each community member that is portrayed in this book.

The last third of the book culminates into life and town altering means and what the aftermath is. While it does take a long time to get to this point it it well worth the entire book.

Filled with a nuanced community worried about climate change, politics, talk of vaccines, Vigil Harbor makes a great book for book club discussions. There is a deliciousness in this close knit group of community members. I am really not sure how this book came my way, but so happy it did. I will remember this one for a long time.

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Pantheon Books and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of Vigil Harbor.

Julia Glass sets her latest novel in Vigil Harbor, a fictional New England enclave that abuts the Atlantic Ocean where “diversity equals brunettes.” The plot is contemporary, occurring sometime after the global pandemic, but where it continues to cast a shadow over the community. Glass populates her town with a variety of finely-detailed characters, including Brecht, an underemployed college dropout who fled New York after a terrorist attack; Brecht’s stepfather, Austin Kepler, “the architect to hire if suddenly you are facing the domestically uprooting shock, whether rude or welcome, of postmarital solitude”; Mike Iliescu, a marine biologist and one of Kepler’s clients whose wife, Deanne, left him for Tom Tattersall, with the plan to become part of the New Shakers, people who lead exemplary, carbon-free lives; and Margo Tattersall, a flinty, retired teacher who is consumed by hot rage when her life is upended by her husband’s infidelity. Other denizens of Vigil Harbor include Celestino, a talented arborist married to Connie, a Vigil Harbor local, whose immigrant status leaves him feeling vulnerable. Into this insular community arrive two interlopers: Petra Coyle, a woman posing as a journalist preparing a profile about Austin’s architectural career who is on a personal mission of vengeance, and Ernesto, who arrives unexpectedly and introduces himself to Connie as an old friend of Celestino’s, although it is quickly apparent that he is not in town for the reasons that he claims.

Many of Glass’s characters suffered personal loss and uncertainty. Brechet’s father succumbed to COVID during an early wave of the pandemic and Connie’s brother died in war. But, Glass moves from these personal losses to more global concerns, such as wanton domestic violence, political polarization, and climate instability. Glass writes a big book that poses big questions but she anchors her themes by deploying a memorable cast of polyphonic narrators ensconced in their New England enclave. In a month of great reads, Glass’s latest novel kept me engaged and entertained.

You may be like me – among those who have no interest in reading about pandemic-anything. Well… that’s what I <i>thought</i>… until I read this novel. It is actually set a decade from now, but with flashbacks to the era of early pandemic-ness, when everything changed.

And yet… I adored this book. I didn’t expect to feel comforted the way I did – and maybe even validated about my own concerns over the past two years. I found myself nodding and feeling understood. And, somehow, even in the uncertain future painted within this book, I felt hope (more below).

The novel is told through a series of first-person narratives – nine, if I counted correctly. In Julia Glass’s capable hands, this technique works, and works well, as the reader gets a <i>deep</i> dive into the emotions of all the characters -- two young adults (one who writes poetry, one an actor), a biologist, a retired English teacher, an architect, a mother running a home-school co-op, and others facing a world with startling new realities – shrinking shorelines, a growing scarcity of specific food items, escalated terrorism activity, intense deportation laws.

When I requested this book, I had no idea there would be such an emphasis on environmental topics, but as we – in real life – inch closer to the realities brought on by climate change, this book felt like a <i>very</i> close approximation of the future – and the emotions of the characters felt achingly real. I tend to gravitate toward eco-fiction and cli-fi, but don’t often read contemporary stories. This was both – and <i>so</i> much more. It was utterly transporting.

I was most struck by my connection to the character, Brecht, a young man who self-describes his generation as “Generation F: failure, fatalist; take your pick. Others call us Generation NL (out loud, nil): No Life, as in having no lives worth living, or maybe as in Get a Life, which it’s true a lot of us cannot seem to do…”

Glass was able to take me, a middle-aged white woman, into the mind of today’s youth and feel their uncertainty – which I found truly remarkable. I felt the same way with nearly every character, breathing the story of each as if it were my own.

So while this all sounds utterly glum, I still walked away feeling hopeful, because all of these characters found joy in their lives. And because the message, overall, is that humans are adaptable, resilient.

As one character thinks of what he might tell his mother if she asks how he’s doing (10 years in the future), he thinks of his response: “I’m on an island whose shoreline is threatened, there are guards and cops and rangers and all kinds of uniformed people keeping an eye out for trouble, there are flood basins where there used to be basketball courts, there are stretches of summer when the temperature hits one hundred degrees five days in a row, and there may loom storms, bombs, contagions, pandemics and pandemonium, but I’m doing all right.”

And, as a reader, you’re really going to believe him!

Finally, maybe my favorite part of this book is the fantastic mythical element that really ties together the theme of hope, of the importance of wishes and dreams, and of the possibility of the impossible.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I had been wanting to read Julia Glass since I saw her YEARS ago at Tucson Festival of Books (this novel took her a decade to write!). So happy I got the chance and that this was my first exposure.

Set in the small, secluded town of Vigil Harbor, Julia Glass paints a portrait of America in the not-too-distant future of post-Covid and climate change. Against the backdrop of the coastal Massachusetts town, we meet several families whose lives intersect when two strangers come to town and upend all that the town has held closely.

This was a challenging read requiring patience and vigilance. Glass’ prose was beautiful and her careful construction of characters kept me turning pages. I struggled with the content at times because of its imminent nature for our country. This was my first book by the author and won’t be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley, Julia Glass and Knopf Doubeday for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I’d read only one of Julia Glass’s prior novels—her debut Three Junes, winner of the National Book Award—when I requested an advance copy of Vigil Harbor. I was drawn in by the synopsis, focused on an isolated community in the midst of the consequences of climate change. Honestly, I didn’t give thought to much else, to plot or writing or even characters, but all of those facets of this novel exceeded my expectations.

Vigil Harbor moves through a large cast of characters, shifting from one perspective to the next, as they consider the elements of their past that have led them to their current identities as individuals and as a community.

Each character is precisely drawn as a unique individual inextricably woven into the lives of the others. Brecht, who dropped out of college after witnessing a horrific explosion in New York, lives with his best friend Noam in the home of Brecht’s mother and stepfather, Austin. Austin, an architect, works both to comfort his family and to wrestle with a tragic loss from his past. Mike is reeling from the end of his marriage. The list of characters spools out from there, all woven together by their mutual past and by a desire to escape something outside of Vigil Harbor.

Tragedy pervades their stories, but so does hope, and there’s a whimsy, a touch of myth and story, that pushes this book out of the realm of the typical. This near-future book is rooted in the way that climate change plagues society through disasters both natural and man-made, and watching the way those disasters alternately push people apart and together again is a captivating process. I absolutely could not stop reading this book, which blends beautiful writing, compelling characters, and a propulsive plot. It’s a masterful work of fiction.

A great read. Set ten years in the future, in a world with multiple natural disasters, ecoterrorism,immigration problems, racism and forced emigration, Vigil Harbor is the physically isolated old yankee town that reveres the flag, the heroes of past wars, and the yacht club set. Told from the point of view and lives of its main characters, all of its scars and dark secrets emerge. A long read and a page turner-and maybe just maybe, life does exist under our oceans and waters (embodied in issa). And who could read this book and not LOVE Mrs. Tattersall??

I was excited to read this because I had loved some of Julia Glass’s earlier novels. But i almost abandoned this one-the beginning was tough for me. It’s based in a coastal New England town in a near future where terrorist attacks are commonplace, climate change is hastening, and anywhere is vulnerable. I was afraid it was going to be sci-fi ish, but ended up being a good story about various people and families in the town. A mysterious visitor ends up disrupting but then bringing people together. Altogether worth reading. #vigilharbor #juliaglass #bookstagram #tbr #lovetoread #booksbooksbooks #bookblog #readersofinstagram #booksareessential #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookloversofinstagram #readallthebooks #netgalley

An immersive, intense, and important read that will pull you in and keep you reading. Set in a plausible if at times frightening future, this is the story, told by each of them, of a group of people living in the small coastal town of Vigil Harbor and what happens when outsiders push in. Brecht is back at home with his mom Miriam and stepfather Austin after surviving a terrorist act in NYC. His story and his poems will linger in your mind. Petra is stalking Austin because of a woman they both loved. Mike and Margo are struggling with the departure of their spouses. Celestino, Connie, and Raul have built a good life in this small town. The arrival of an old acquaintance of Celestino sets off a chain of events that, well, no spoilers from me. Glass spools out some details, critical details, over the course of the novel. Everyone is linked, almost everyone has their say, and everyone will surprise both themselves and the reader at some point. This is very much about family, both the legal (for want of a better word) one and the one we make. The language is gorgeous, the storytelling superb, and I can't do credit to how wonderful this is. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Highly recommend- a must read.

This panoramic yet tightly plotted novel follows the intersecting paths of half a dozen residents of the eponymous coastal town. We read about the events of their daily lives, their grocery shopping and their children's art projects, and about the traumas large and small that have shaped them - and, in the second half of the book, something larger - in the words of one character, an intersection of their lives with history.

The story is set in a near future - about ten years from now - that is highly recognizable but very different from our present. The children of Covid-19 have grown up. Environmental degradation has become a fact of life, and responses range from activism to despair, end-of-days fanaticism to terrorism. The scope of humanity's outlook has narrowed, but people haven't changed. They still marry and divorce, bring children into the world and hope breathlessly for their future.

Vigil Harbor is at its best when it focuses on its characters and their humanity. The writing is beautiful, the characterization both subtle and profound. If it had been a novel only about these interwoven lives in this small town, I would have given it five stars.

But too often the politics of the novel intrude: climate change and deforestation and ocean acidification, and the characters' denialist or extremist responses. Although these are, of course, critical issues, I found myself distracted by the details. Really, I would wonder, will there be no fish left in ten years, and no legal immigration?

Of course it doesn't matter if the world of the story is our actual future - but when I was reading, it felt like it did. It felt like Vigil Harbor had things to say - things about love and loyalty, language and self-delusion, humanity and its place among the species. Most of the time, the book and its message felt like it belonged in our world, or a version of it, but sometimes - when I read that plums had simply stopped existing several years previously, meaning a few years from now, because of climate change - I had a hard time suspending my disbelief.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC: This is a well written book, set in a post pandemic future, where climate change, terrorism, nationalism are facts of life. The author has been writing this book for a decade, so she is prescient. It's not fantasy, it's shockingly real. The book is very well written, but the plot is a bit confusing with multiple voices and slightly slow momentum. Glass has set the novel in Vigil Harbor, and exclusive enclave on the ocean where children are home schooled and architecture reflects the harsh realities of the climate change. She explores infidelity, terrorism, racism, the ability of the wealthy to insulate against global issues and more. The book gains momentum, and the characters are vivid. A cautionary tale: I hope it gets the popularity it deserves.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Pantheon Publishing for the opportunity to read this marvelous book early! Julia Glass never fails. Vigil Harbor is another totally unique book, her speciality. Blending many storylines and POVs, she tells a tale both entertaining and terrifying, a view of what our world may become in the aftermath of pandemics, wars, domestic violence and global warming as well as more base horrors such as greed, hate and disloyalty. Thankfully, she pulls it all together, leaving you feeling hopeful about the future. Don't miss this one!! Loved it!!

National Book Award winner Julia Glass gives us her seventh novel, Vigil Harbor, set in the near future on the New England coast. On a Massachusetts peninsula, the town of Vigil Harbor is steeped in history while besieged by a tumultuous world. Political turmoil, terrorist violence, and inundation by rising seas make Vigil Harbor an isolated outpost, slow to adapt, too slow for its restless inhabitants. Many leave, most return, and no one ever passes through. Until they do.
Glass imagines the world which will exist when my six-year-old is in his twenties. It’s a place we know well with attitudes we recognize, technology we expect to be using, food and fuel prices forcing changes we know we should make now. But what has happened in the interim? That’s the question. Lost time. Gaps in our history, actions delayed, mysteries hidden and never resolved. As readers, we know in our bones what must have happened. The Harborites’ stories let us put the pieces together. But we’ll never know the entire story until we’ve lived it.
Vigil Harbor can’t be pigeon-holed as an environmentalist wake-up call any more than we can label it a dirge for 21st century politics gone wrong. Readers (alongside the Harborites) may be unnerved by the radicalization of causes they support. With the ocean eroding their beaches and storms lashing their homes, the people of Vigil Harbor have everything to lose in the race against global warming. But the way of life they know keeps its hold. There’s more interest in winning races at the Yacht Club. What can challenge entrenched values and rigid social structure?
Uncertainty, fear, faith, and endurance resonate through the pages of Glass’s novel. The story glimmers with the refracted light of folktales born of reverence for deep waters. They are voices speaking to us from the past, reminding us of our symbiosis with nature, and surging through the morass of public debate. Storms devour shorelines just as the daily news cycle eats at our souls, ceaseless and unstoppable as the rising tides. Many characters look too young to know all they know. But, of course, the youngest eyes see most clearly.

Vigil Harbor is a book that requires patience while reading and it rewards you with surprises and intrigue as the story unfolds. We follow multiple characters who reside in the somewhat secluded Vigil Harbor. It has been years since the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world and since then, there has been much environmental destruction and a rise in terrorism.

It is a challenging and fascinating read that leaves some mysteries unanswered and manages to leave readers with some hope despite all of the bleak circumstances that occur throughout. I recommend it to fans of literary fiction with a sprinkling of dystopia.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I suppose the themes you choose to take away from this novel depend on whether you are a “glass half full” or “glass half empty” kind of person.. I’m usually the half-full kind and even still Glass’s depiction of a world ten years in our future - rocked by climate change and terrorism, erosion of land and belief in the systems we install to protect ourselves - is bleak in a way that feels so realistic. This could be the future if we don’t change our present - or at least that’s one of the more overbearing messages from Vigil Harbor, and I don’t think it’s an inaccurate one. It’s just not what I enjoyed most about this book.

What I did enjoy were the characters of the town of Vigil Harbor: Brecht, a college dropout with PTSD from a bombing; his worried mother Miriam and stepfather Austin, an architect with an unclear past; Mike and Margo, two unlikely friends whose spouses left them for each other; and Celestino, an immigrant who understandably worries about deportation, and his wife Connie, a teacher who struggles to fully understand her husband’s fear. Add in Petra and Ernesto, outsiders with vastly different hidden agendas, and you have a great mix of fully fleshed people with their own motivations and concerns, who all end up tied to each other in ways I didn’t expect at first. I found most of them likable, all of them at least somewhat relatable.

For all the struggles the characters endure - personal and global, due to the world they now live in, the ending is hopeful. Life moves on in some places even if it doesn’t in others, and there’s an optimism to the younger generation in this world that may be required to survive and thrive in our own, even in present day.

There is a fantastical thread through Vigil Harbor that I can’t decide if I like or not. I’m not sure how much it added to the plot, other than affirming the belief that maybe we all could use a little magic. I didn’t see the book marketed as magical realism, so if that’s not your thing, just a heads up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the ARC!