After the fire

Fiction. Literature. HTML: Five women at critical crossroads in their lives come together in this gem of a novel set on an island off the coast of Vancouver  After the Fire introduces a quintet of very different women as they struggle with abandonment, loss, and new beginnings�??both together and alone. There is Karen Tasuki, who recently separated from her partner and wonders if she'll ever get used to being alone . . . until she befriends Red, who cleans houses for the island's privileged inhabitants. Miss James is the eccentric Southern spinster born at the turn of the century. Milly Forbes is a woman whose husband went scot free after stealing twenty years of her life. And the sensible Henrietta Hen Hawkins yearns for her absent, ill husband.   On a rural island that they dub a used-wife lot, the five heroines nurture one another as they cope with loneliness, death, and renewed life. Imbued with wit and compassion, After the Fire is a novel about women loving women and women helping women�??and the bond that transcends age, race, and even gender… (more)