Marrow Island

A new novel from a former bookseller, author of the acclaimed Glaciers, tracks a young woman's return home to investigate a secretive community that has mysteriously rescued an island devastated by natural and chemical disaster -- and taken hold of one of her oldest friends. Twenty years ago Lucie Bowen left Marrow Island; along with her mother, she fled the aftermath of an earthquake that compromised the local refinery, killing her father and ravaging the island's environment. Now, Lucie's childhood friend Kate is living within a mysterious group called Marrow Colony -- a community that claims to be "ministering to the Earth." There have been remarkable changes to the land at the colony's homestead. Lucie's experience as a journalist tells her there's more to Marrow Colony -- and their charismatic leader -- than they want her to know, and that the astonishing success of their environmental remediation has come at great cost to the colonists themselves. As she uncovers their secrets and methods, will Lucie endanger more than their mission? What price will she pay for the truth? In the company ofStation Eleven andCalifornia, Marrow Islanduses two tense natural disasters to ask tough questions about our choices -- large and small. A second novel from a bookseller whose sleeper-hit debut was praised by Karen Russell as "haunted, joyful, beautiful," it promises to capture and captivate new readers even as it thrills Smith's many existing fans.