The Shore by Sara Taylor

 

Sara Taylor uses her own childhood geography to set this epic family narrative.   It is set on one of the small islands on the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Virginia.  Most people, if they know of these islands, have heard of Chincoteague, home of wild ponies.  But there are other, small islands.

The narrator of the novel is a women from one of the original families in the area.  Her ancestors go back to a half Native American woman who fled her racist home only to marry a man who was just as racist and tried to kill her to marry a more acceptable women he met later.  The women in her family were rugged and strong and none is stronger than she.  As a small girl, she saw her father kill her mother and bury her in the backyard.  Holly's goal in life is to protect her younger sister so she tells no one what she knows.  Instead she protects her sister from their father and the meth-addicted friends he brings around.  Then something happens that cannot be overlooked and the family is burst asunder.

Now Holly has returned to the island.  She wants to find anyone who knew her parents and to get the true story of her family and all that happened to bring about the childhood she is still trying to reconcile with her adult life.  She finds more than she wanted but she needed to know it all.

This is Sara Taylor's debut novel.  Her assured recreation of the environment brought her a nomination on the Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction.  Her characters are strong and willing to do whatever is needed to survive while making sure the family will go on.  The narrative spans more than a century and close attention is needed to keep all the family lines straight and determine how each character is related to each other.  The timeline also goes back and forth a bit and again requires close attention from the reader.  But the beauty and uniqueness of this novel richly rewards any effort needed.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.