But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Mira’s voice-lyrical yet gripping, specific yet universal-draws readers close to experience the storm and share her epiphanies.Ī masterful exploration of nature’s power to shake human foundations, literal and figurative. In the morning, she discovers the storm’s carried away the first floor of the cottage. Caring for her rescued kitten comforts her through the long night. She remembers to turn off the gas at the source. She finds strength protecting what’s precious to her absent family: her brother’s collection of sands, her mother’s jewelry and art. As wind and water invade her refuge, Mira forces herself to act, described deliberately in Kephart’s characteristically precise prose. Worse, someone’s been prowling around it.
Now, without power or phone service, Mira’s alone in a cottage on stilts.
The care and affection of neighbors and friends mitigate the effects of the rare disease crippling Mira’s brother. The supportive island culture tolerates eccentrics like Old Carmen, a fisher and resident vagrant. Mira attends a small alternative school with her friends Deni and Eva. Haven’s small, close-knit community is a world unto itself after summer vacationers leave. The devastating superstorm arrives without warning at night, destroying the bridge connecting Haven, a New Jersey barrier island, to the mainland and isolating residents from one another with her mother and fragile little brother on the other side, Mira Banul, 17, must cope alone.
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