HOME When Rebecca Granger falls in love with Ben Bunker she is only fourteen. In 1958 a summer girl from away is not allowed to love a year-round boy, son of a fisherman in Downeast Maine, and yet she does. When her father dies, loss and anger overpower her and she commits a sin, terrible as the time, that almost destroys her. She hides from her life in fantasies until she returns to Maine as an adult, and struggles to come to terms with the past.
Islands of Time is a moving story of loss, pain and growth, but ultimately of unexpected forgiveness and love.
Cover image: Dimming Light Passing by R. Scott Baltz, www.rscottbaltz.com
from Islands of Time:
I never loved my husbands. I loved Ben. I was fourteen when I fell in love with Ben Bunker. When I heard his voice. It wasn't that he said anything special - but his voice reverberated though me. Instantly. Beyond logic. I was standing next to Ben, so close I could smell the salt on his clothes. I looked up into his eyes - blues of the sea and sky flecked with sunlight and I was drawn into them. Totally. It was just a moment but, so powerful it still lives in me.
I did what I always did, when an emotion threatened me. I froze. I was used to guarding against pain, not to accepting love.
I couldn't trust love, trust myself or even the idea of love. Rachel's death and then later my father dying too, too soon too young.
How can you trust in love when everyone you love, or you think loves you, disappears?.How can you trust yourself when everyone you love leaves and you know it is your fault? I was so broken I destroyed what I most loved and I thought I'd lost him forever.
COMMENTS FROM READERS:
Patrons of a local library were invited to read a final draft of ISLANDS OF TIME and comment. We include some what they said below with great thanks, but no names:
"Warm and wonderful. It SO describes one's first love and how it is imprinted on us forever."
"Satisfying love story for us baby boomers....It is a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. The story tells the essence of a lifetime of trial, personal pain, and sometimes despair -- mixed with recollections of the excitement as well as the fragile and confusing emotions of first love. And then a generation of loss and simple survival -- to finally come out on the other side to a promise of unfolding renewal and rebirth."
"I find Islands to be timed perfectly for me. The timing, all of it, the back and forth, the quick explanatory vignettes, the tone I could grasp, all made for reading that became - I want to say, magnifying... [C]omforting, always engaging and truly enriching with a shared sense of torn open healing."
"A true love story. This is a story of growth to maturity and self-acceptance of a girl who found her first love in the year she turned 14....Reminded me of the style in "Water for Elephants."
"Picturesque...Interesting to read a love story involving mature characters. The flashbacks to their youth make it work. Reminiscent of "The Notebook."
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Northeast Harbor can seem a world away from Islesford.
What people are saying about
Islands of Time
Islands of Time: I really like it. The story, about a girl from away falling in love with a year-round kid from Maine, then coming back as an adult to reclaim her self, resonates with me. It’s also a love song to the people and landscape of Maine.
Linda Greenlaw, Author of best-selling books including, The Hungry Ocean, Lobster Chronicles and her new book,
Lifesaving Lessons
On a foggy, also wet and cold, day in April, I went to Islesford on Litle Cranberry Island to do a "pre-launch" author talk. Librarian Cindy Thomas and several other new friends from the island made me feel right at home. They seemed to enjoy the readings, asked insightful questions, and we talked about a wide range of topics including how writers draw characters from their experiences and why fiction is always partly non-fiction, and vice versa. Thank you everyone for a glorious day even without the sun shining.
The islands of Islands of Time: Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island, looking toward Little Cranberry (left) and Great Cranberry Islands. you can just see Baker Island to the far left off the tip of Little Cranberry.
Photograph by Michael Train
The story of Becky and Ben takes place around these two harbors, and worlds.
