Margreete’s Harbor
begins with a fire: a fiercely-independent, thrice-widowed woman living
on her own in a rambling house near the Maine coast forgets a hot pan on
the stovetop, and nearly burns her place down.
When Margreete
Bright calls her daughter Liddie to confess, Liddie realizes that her
mother can no longer live alone. She, her husband Harry, and their
children Eva and Bernie move from a settled life in Michigan across the
country to Margreete’s isolated home, and begin a new life.
Margreete’s
Harbor tells the story of ten years in the history of a family: a novel
of small moments, intimate betrayals, arrivals and disappearances that
coincide with America during the late 1950s through the turbulent 1960s.
Liddie, a professional cellist, struggles to find space for her music
in a marriage that increasingly confines her; Harry’s critical approach
to the growing war in Vietnam endangers his new position as a high
school history teacher; Bernie and Eva begin to find their own
identities as young adults; and Margreete slowly descends into a private
world of memories, even as she comes to find a larger purpose in them.
Reviews
"Margreete's Harbor is an exquisite family epic of many moods
and much dramatic incident. I experienced the character of Liddie as
sent from a George Eliot novel into 1950's and 1960's brooding coastal
Maine ― Liddie is magnificently compelling, like an actress you cannot
take your eyes away from. Eleanor Morse has more gifts as a writer than
you could count on an abacus."―Howard Norman, author of The Ghost Clause and The Bird Artist
"Timely
as well as timeless, heartfelt as well as heartbreaking, this beautiful
novel of a family at the crossroads of becoming reminds us of the very
real perils of aging, the legacies bequeathed as generations succeed
each other, the betrayals that shape us, and the sustaining strength of
the ties that bind."―Janet Peery, author of The River Beyond the World and The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs
“I was held spellbound by the brilliance and beauty of Margreete's Harbor. The
family, the children, the music, the pets, the senile grandmother, the
idealistic father, still live in Maine, in my heart and mind, like all
the very best novels we are given to treasure.”―Nancy Thayer, best-selling author of Girls of Summer
“Margreete’s Harbor is a novel that embraces your neighborhood, then the people who live on the other side of the world; then you. It
cradles us all and shakes us awake. If you don’t want to feel your
heart expand or to live a bit closer to your own bones, don’t read this
book. If you want to feel more, to understand more than you felt and
thought yesterday, start reading and don’t stop.”―Sena Jeter Naslund, best-selling author of Ahab’s Wife
“Margreete's Harbor
breaks and mends the heart in the way of all great literature. It’s a
collective story, roaring with love in the little moments. Profound
revelations about relationships, emotions, and life in general.
Descriptions of land, place, animals, and the natural world: some of the
best I've ever read. The narrative moves with power, grace, and vivid
music through history and the characters simultaneously--and
differently. The people Morse writes are so real that I wouldn’t be
surprised to meet them on the street.”―Neela Vaswani, author of Where the Long Grass Bends
"Eleanor Morse's Margreete's Harbor,
a polyphonic novel in which each voice is earned yet blends seamlessly
with the others, shines with its author's warmth, humanity, and
intelligence: I'm a better person for having read it.”―Robin Lippincott, author of Our Arcadia
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