A beautifully wrought tale of hardship, healing, and the bonds that remake us.
Edwards’ novel unfolds with the quiet intensity of a life upended, following a twelve-year-old girl as she’s forced to navigate loss, displacement, and the uneasy hope of beginning again. When her mother falls into a coma in 1969 San Francisco, Maggie Stone is pushed from neighbor to orphanage to the doorstep of Ira Stone, the grandfather she has never met and only knows as the man her mother fled. The shift from cramped city streets to the stark expanse of an eastern Montana ranch is as jarring for Maggie as the silence of this hard-edged WWI veteran who suddenly becomes her guardian. Will Maggie learn to trust him?
The move from urban San Francisco to the isolated ranchlands of eastern Montana marks the novel’s most dramatic change of setting. Edwards draws Montana with vivid authenticity: the sweeping plains, the unpredictable weather, the rhythms of ranch life, and the rough-hewn practicality of those who inhabit it. He captures Maggie’s challenges with emotional precision—her loyalty, her isolation, and her unyielding spirit. Maggie and Ira’s fragile, awkward relationship forms the story’s core. Burdened by past hurts, they struggle at first, yet Maggie’s growing competence on the ranch and in town builds her confidence. The ending lands with a quiet, earned emotional weight. Lovers of quiet, emotionally rich coming-of-age stories will feel right at home.
A quietly powerful story about the courage it takes to rebuild a life from its jagged edges, and how love—unexpected, imperfect, and hard-won—can take shape between two people learning to trust again.
Quantum Shift Publishing
Pub date May 28, 2024
ISBN 978-1955533263
Price $21.40 (USD) Paperback, $9.99 Kindle edition
