Skyland: A Novel

Some stories settle into you like fog rolling off the water. This is one of them.

When Celia is murdered by a troubled young man from across the street, her husband Henry and daughters Nora and Lucy are left to navigate the unthinkable in their small town of Kittery, Maine. Hoping to help his girls heal, Henry sends them to spend the summer at Skyland Farm, a remote artists’ retreat tucked into the New Hampshire mountains and run by his beloved cousin Franny.

But healing is rarely simple. Among the resident artists, the sisters struggle to find their footing. Nora wrestles with her tangled feelings about Blake, the young man who shattered their lives, even as she forms a tentative bond with a young sculptor. Lucy, the sole witness to the murder, retreats into silence and the mysterious world of a painting above her bed. And back in Maine, Henry faces his own reckoning when he becomes entangled with Blake’s mother, threatening twelve hard-won years of sobriety.

As the buried details of that terrible day slowly surface, the family edges toward a midnight confrontation that will either break them apart or finally bring them home to one another.

Set against the rugged beauty of coastal Maine and the mountains of New Hampshire, Skyland is a deeply moving exploration of how art, nature, and unexpected friendship can guide us back from the brink. It’s a novel about grief, yes. But also about survival, and the slow, stubborn work of learning to live again.

A perfect read for a salty, rain-streaked afternoon. Linger here a while.

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