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.
Download and start listening now!
“With the slightest quaver, narrator Emily Rankin effectively gives voice to the people of Marrow Island…Rankin deftly portrays Lucie’s pain, confusion, and feeling of disconnectedness…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
— AudioFile
“Smith’s excellent command of language gives life to arresting characters and their creepy surroundings, keeping the suspense in this dark environmental thriller running high.”
— Elle“That’s the beautifully wrought setting of this novel…reunites two childhood friends, one of whom has joined a sect claiming it can heal the land.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine“This alluring novel explores the darkness of love, how it can cajole you into danger or tip your actions toward cruelty. Clean but intoxicating writing.”
— New York Times Book Review“[In this] gripping, compelling story…there’s a consistent feeling of the fragility of life and loss—from the large disasters that devastate a region to the personal losses of relationships and friendships—and the healing that occurs after these events.”
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“A stunning novel about sacrifice for the sake of survival in the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters…evoking questions of what it means to harm—ourselves, our surroundings—and to heal. Engrossing eco-fiction, eerie and earnest.”
— Kirkus ReviewsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Alexis M. Smith grew up in Soldotna, Alaska, and Seattle, Washington. She attended Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, and Goddard College, where she earned an MFA in creative writing. Her writing has appeared in Tarpaulin Sky and on Powells.com.
Emily Rankin is an audio narrator and winner of two AudioFile Earphones Awards.