The Silver Boat

The Silver Boat: A Novel by Luanne Rice

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Dar McCarthy, the only sister still living on Martha's Vineyard, has gathered her two younger sisters home, Delia and Rory, to close up Daggett's Way, the old beloved family beach house. Desperately trying to hang onto the 15 acre property, all three sisters fly off to Cork, Ireland, remembering their father's insistent story of a land grant given to the McCarthys. Their father had sailed for the emerald isles, many years before on a lovely ship he had built himself, the Irish Darling, promising to return with such evidence. Instead, finally after a safe arrival, the family had never heard from him again. Dar, especially, has always had problems with the abandonment and uses the pain she feels in her illustrating her graphic novels. In the end, after learning the truth about their father, the sisters find that they're really not on the same page about Daggett's Way - they cut the thread that held them together and Dar feels abandoned again, dropping into a deep depression.

Luanne Rice is one of my favorite writers of fiction. She has a way of writing about family relationships, weaving in the same joys and losses that we, the readers, feel in our own lives. To lighten things up a wee bit, there always seems to be a quirky character or two involved.




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