Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2012
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A captivating debut, introducing a spirited young heroine coming of age in coastal Maine during the early 1960s.
When her mother disappears during a weekend trip, Florine Gilham's idyllic childhood is turned upside down. Until then she'd been blissfully insulated by the rhythms of family life in small town Maine: watching from the granite cliffs above the sea for her father's lobster boat to come into port, making bread with her grandmother, and infiltrating the summer tourist camps with her friends. But with her mother gone, the heart falls out of Florine's life and she and her father are isolated as they struggle to manage their loss.
Both sustained and challenged by the advice and expectations of her family and neighbors, Florine grows up with her spirit intact. And when her father's past comes to call, she must accept that life won't ever be the same while keeping her mother vivid in her memories. With Fannie Flagg's humor and Elizabeth Strout's sense of place, this debut is an extraordinary snapshot of a bygone America through the eyes of an inspiring girl blazing her own path to womanhood.
"Readers who enjoy coming-of-age tales and small-town stories will appreciate this well-crafted debut novel that tugs at the heart without falling into sentimentality." - Library Journal
"Rogers' debut sometimes feels less like a novel than a treatment for the kind of bittersweet coming-of-age movies that don't get made much anymore. B+" - Entertainment Weekly
"A realistic and resonate coming-of-age novel, chronicling a journey from grief to acceptance." - Kirkus
"So rapturously moving, I could barely bring myself to close the final page." - Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You
This information about Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea was first featured
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