THE EDGE OF WINTER is a story about the struggles of single mom Neve and her daughter, Mickey, as they try to make a life along the rugged beach coast of Rhode Island. It's a tumultuous time for both as Neve is still recovering from the disappointment of divorce and Mickey is trying to make sense of her absentee father and her own life as she transitions from a girl to a teenager. Through the ups and downs, the bond that holds them together is their deep affinity for birds and nature.
During a bird-watching expedition with a friend, Mickey takes a tumble over her bicycle handlebars and lands in the ER with a broken wrist and two new friends -- a park ranger and a teenage surfer. Both have their own personal struggles and have a passion for the nature sanctuary and what's buried in the water off the shore. As personal issues are explored by the characters, nature reveals secrets that will touch them all.
Once again, Rice writes a poetic novel with soulful characters and mesmerizing scenery. She whispers the story to the reader in an understated, yet powerful and captivating way.
Neve Halloran and her daughter have shared a fierce love
for the austere beauty of Rhode Island's South County ever
since Neve guided Mickey's first baby steps along the sandy
shore. Now, with Mickey a teenager and Neve's last hope for
happiness with her daughter's loving but unstable father
gone, both will struggle to make a new life together amid
the windswept landscape that sustains them.
Captivated by a fragile wildlife sanctuary, Mickey will
move toward womanhood in the company of a lonely boy who
shares her instinctive way with the creatures of the coast.
And Neve will find herself drawn to a man who has devoted
his life to the sanctuary, but who is unable to share the
pain of a recent loss-or reconnect with the father who
still bears the scars of World War II.
As winter gives way to spring, and spring to summer, a
secret will emerge that has lain buried in the depths just
offshore for decades, a secret that will galvanize the
small seaside community. For the waters bear their own
vestige of the past-and their ceaseless rhythms may point
the way to hope and new beginnings.
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