Coastliners

Joanne Harris

Madeleine grew up on the island off the French coast, Le Devin, in the smaller, poorer village of Les Salants. Her mother took her away to live in Paris. Her quiet, remote father stayed on the island with his boat building business. Her older sister married the nephew of the richest man on the island and moved to Tangiers. Now that her mother has died, she is returning to see her father. She hasn't heard from him since her mother left him. Now she wants to try to reconnect. Her father has turned into a hermit, rarely talking to any one.

The village of Les Salants is dying. The village at the other end of the island, La Houssiniere, is doing well and improving. Tourism is big in La Houssiniere, bringing in the money to keep them going. The villagers in Les Salants are fishermen. They are very superstitious and believe strongly in luck. The storms off the Atlantic have eroded their side of the island. The beach is disappearing, the fish have changed their feeding patterns, and the land is flooding. One of the few bright spots is the wanderer who has temporarily settled on Le Devin, Flynn.

Madeline changes her plans. Instead of returning to Paris, she decides to stay on Le Devin and try to help. With Flynn's help, they find a way to start bringing life back to Les Salants. But their good luck is bad luck for La Houssiniere. Soon economic troubles are affecting the interactions of the residents of one side of the island with the other. As time goes on, Madeline learns there are more undercurrents than she realized. Something more is going on than just good luck. How much does the rich man, Brismand, really control?

Coastliners never quite comes together. It took about a third of the book before I finally decided I would keep going. More than once I was ready to move on to another book. Joanne Harris' novel is quiet and slow. At times I was caught up in the characters and their lives, but for most of the time I kept going because Coastliners is a fair book and I like Joanne Harris' work.