Marrow Island
by Alexis M. Smith
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Pub Date Jun 07 2016 | Archive Date Jul 07 2016
Description
What would you give to save the thing you love the most?
It has been twenty years since Lucie Bowen left the islands. Twenty years ago, the May Day Quake set loose catastrophic waves along the west coast, from Alaska to California, shattering thousands of lives. Twenty years ago, Lucie’s father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, a tragedy that destroyed the island’s ecosystem and sent Lucie and her mother to the mainland to start anew. Twenty years ago, Lucie and her best friend, Katie, were just Puget Sound children, tucked up under their desks, hovering under mylar sheets, hoping to survive.
Now, Katie writes with strange and miraculous news. Marrow Island is no longer uninhabitable, no longer abandoned. She is part of a community, a mysterious Colony, that has, somehow, conjured life again from Marrow’s soil. Lucie returns. Her journalist instincts tell her there’s more to the Colony and their charismatic leader—a former nun with an all-consuming plan—than its members want her to know. The island’s astonishing rebirth seems to have come at great cost—perhaps to the colonists themselves. As she uncovers their secrets, will Lucie endanger more than their mission? What price will she pay for the truth?
I was always a part of you, and you were always a part of me, Katie writes. And in this marvelously spun story Alexis Smith reaches into the depths of our connections to our pasts, our loved ones, our devotions. Our choices may bring us to the brink, but within our promises to each other and our hopes for the future, at the intersection of science and faith and grace, there may well be miracles in the making.
It has been twenty years since Lucie Bowen left the islands. Twenty years ago, the May Day Quake set loose catastrophic waves along the west coast, from Alaska to California, shattering thousands of lives. Twenty years ago, Lucie’s father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, a tragedy that destroyed the island’s ecosystem and sent Lucie and her mother to the mainland to start anew. Twenty years ago, Lucie and her best friend, Katie, were just Puget Sound children, tucked up under their desks, hovering under mylar sheets, hoping to survive.
Now, Katie writes with strange and miraculous news. Marrow Island is no longer uninhabitable, no longer abandoned. She is part of a community, a mysterious Colony, that has, somehow, conjured life again from Marrow’s soil. Lucie returns. Her journalist instincts tell her there’s more to the Colony and their charismatic leader—a former nun with an all-consuming plan—than its members want her to know. The island’s astonishing rebirth seems to have come at great cost—perhaps to the colonists themselves. As she uncovers their secrets, will Lucie endanger more than their mission? What price will she pay for the truth?
I was always a part of you, and you were always a part of me, Katie writes. And in this marvelously spun story Alexis Smith reaches into the depths of our connections to our pasts, our loved ones, our devotions. Our choices may bring us to the brink, but within our promises to each other and our hopes for the future, at the intersection of science and faith and grace, there may well be miracles in the making.
Advance Praise
"Smith’s story carries the same heft, descriptive nuance, and narrative spark that distinguished her debut, but this time, she more finely hones her characters’ emotional rhythm and atmospheric location to create a thoroughly eerie reading experience capped off with a startling conclusion."—Publishers Weekly, starred and boxed review
"A stunning novel about sacrifice for the sake of survival in the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters . . . 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
"Once upon a time, there was an amazing little book named Glaciers, a truly beautiful thing to behold, and all the people who read it fell in love with it and pined for another book by Alexis M. Smith. Well, ready yourself Glaciers-lovers – only six more months until her new book!!! It is weird and glorious and I loved it. Different from Glaciers, but still wonderful. Marrow Island is about a journalist who returns to her home island to possibly report on a sketchy environmental colony that has set up residence on the island, and to visit her childhood best friend, who is one of the colony’s residents."—BookRiot, "Our Most Anticipated Reads of 2016"
"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
“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
"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
"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
“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
"A stunning novel about sacrifice for the sake of survival in the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters . . . 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
"Once upon a time, there was an amazing little book named Glaciers, a truly beautiful thing to behold, and all the people who read it fell in love with it and pined for another book by Alexis M. Smith. Well, ready yourself Glaciers-lovers – only six more months until her new book!!! It is weird and glorious and I loved it. Different from Glaciers, but still wonderful. Marrow Island is about a journalist who returns to her home island to possibly report on a sketchy environmental colony that has set up residence on the island, and to visit her childhood best friend, who is one of the colony’s residents."—BookRiot, "Our Most Anticipated Reads of 2016"
"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
“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
"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
"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
“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
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780544373419 |
| PRICE | $23.00 (USD) |
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