ABOUT
THE BOOK

On a small island off the New Hampshire coast in 1873, two women were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. A third woman survived the attack, hiding in a sea cave until morning. More than one hundred years later, a photographer, Jean, comes to the island to shoot a photo-essay about the legendary crime. Immersing herself in accounts of the lives of the fishermen’s wives who were the victims, she becomes obsessed with the barrenness of the women’s days: the stultifying labour, the long stretches of loneliness, the relentless winds that threatened to sweep them off the rocky island. How could a marriage survive such conditions? Was the misery of everyday life connected to the killings? With her own marriage in difficulties Jean feels the forces of a century earlier come alive inside her, leading her to the verge of actions she never imagined herself capable of: will her choices destroy all she values or bring her safely home? Anita Shreve is the author of five previous novels and she has published short stories and non-fiction. She lives in Massachusetts.