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Title details for Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith - Available

Marrow Island

by Alexis M. Smith
Emily Rankin
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 7, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780735284692
      • File size: 250610 KB
      • Duration: 08:42:06

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With the slightest quaver, narrator Emily Rankin effectively gives voice to the people of Marrow Island. Off the coast of Washington, the island was decimated 20 years earlier, when a major West Coast earthquake destroyed its oil refinery, creating a toxic wasteland. Lucie Bowen lost much on that day--her father, her home, and, when her mother took her away, her community, especially her soul mate, Katie. Rankin deftly portrays Lucie's pain, confusion, and feeling of disconnectedness as her thoughts continually drift from the present to the past. Now Lucie has returned, answering a summons from Katie, who is living in a primitive settlement led by a former nun. As spookily voiced by Rankin, Katie and her fellow settlers are pleasant enough, but just a little off. Lucie's reporter's instincts kick in, and soon she knows the secret of The Colony, but wishes she didn't. In this wistful and creepy story, you can't go home again. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 25, 2016
      Reader Rankin beautifully renders the lyrical prose of this compelling and enigmatic novel. Twenty years have passed since a cataclysmic earthquake struck the northwest coast of Washington State, resulting in widespread devastation, including a terrible fire at an oil refinery on the isolated Marrow Island. Efforts to battle the blaze with flame retardants and other chemicals so polluted the soil and groundwater that the island was rendered toxic and uninhabitable. Lucie Bowen, an environmental journalist whose father died in the fire, returns to Marrow, where a small community of people have been working under the radar to make the land livable again. But the island harbors dark and deadly secrets. Rankin’s clear and thoughtful reading perfectly captures Lucie’s emotional turmoil as she tries to reconcile her past with the present and an uncertain future. She effortlessly navigates the story’s shifts in time, as well as the small, distinctly portrayed cast of characters. Her pacing and tone keep the story moving at a deceptively leisurely pace, building stealthily to a suspenseful and moving climax. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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