Delicate and probing, this novel about the uneasy collision between two worlds could be about any story of immigrants striving to fit into an alien culture. A tragedy makes the natives look with growing suspicion and hostility at the people from Golub. It possesses a will of its own, turning so bitterly cold the inhabitants were forced to leave through a narrow aperture in one tree. Now they can return only if the forest decides.
The opening chapters are awash with detail, so much so that it’s a little bewildering at first read. You have to go back and peruse chapters and paragraphs to understand what’s happening. Feelings between Rafay who lives in Willow Forest and Yasmine, a native of Moonlight Bay, are changing. Yet neither is quite certain of the other.
Obligations towards family are a wedge between them as Yas’s mother follows arcane practices which she claims help the grieving and Raf’s uncle keeps talking about how they’ll all return to Golub someday, even as the hope of doing so dwindles with every passing year.
In spite of a sea turned an ominous gray, you get the sense of color and passionate emotion beating at the heart of this once-thriving community. The town seems to be dying as the tourist trade slackens, but the natives and outsiders are stubbornly holding on to what they have, determined to make the best of tough times.
Regardless of the magical realism, this story is hauntingly familiar in its overtones of racial tension and burgeoning young love. It’s not an epic story but possesses a throbbing quietude that sneaks up on the reader.
The opening chapters are awash with detail, so much so that it’s a little bewildering at first read. You have to go back and peruse chapters and paragraphs to understand what’s happening. Feelings between Rafay who lives in Willow Forest and Yasmine, a native of Moonlight Bay, are changing. Yet neither is quite certain of the other.
Obligations towards family are a wedge between them as Yas’s mother follows arcane practices which she claims help the grieving and Raf’s uncle keeps talking about how they’ll all return to Golub someday, even as the hope of doing so dwindles with every passing year.
In spite of a sea turned an ominous gray, you get the sense of color and passionate emotion beating at the heart of this once-thriving community. The town seems to be dying as the tourist trade slackens, but the natives and outsiders are stubbornly holding on to what they have, determined to make the best of tough times.
Regardless of the magical realism, this story is hauntingly familiar in its overtones of racial tension and burgeoning young love. It’s not an epic story but possesses a throbbing quietude that sneaks up on the reader.