by Anita Shreve
First published 2017
Grace Holland stands five months pregnant in her Maine coastal home as wildfires rage toward her town in October 1947. Her husband Gene has left to fight the blazes with other volunteers. Grace must protect her two toddlers alone. When flames consume her house, she flees to the ocean with her friend Rosie and Rosie's children. They spend the night in the water, shielding their kids from fire and smoke. Dawn reveals total destruction. Their town no longer exists. Grace faces life without home, money, or word about Gene's survival. The disaster strips away her old constraints. She discovers freedoms and joys her marriage never allowed. Her confidence grows. Then catastrophe strikes again. Grace must summon courage she never knew she possessed.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, resilience, second-chance
Setting: Maine
Period: 1947
256 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: death