Thayer!s (Strong for Potatoes) second novel treats the unusual relationship between an aging, socially withdrawn man and a young, pregnant woman. Peter has lived a hermitlike existence in his cabin on the Maine coast for years since his wife and children died in a house fire. His only companions are an old dog and Dora, an elderly Native American woman who lives in a nearby cabin. Elaine, who appears at Peter!s cabin during an ice storm, has deliberately sought his place as a refuge while she make decisions about her life and baby, who may require a blood transfusion at birth, a procedure forbidden by her Jehovah!s Witnesses sect. Peter is at first angry at the imposition of a needy stranger, but he gradually comes to rely on Elaine!s companionship and help with his animals and garden. He finds himself opening up to the world again, falling in love, and resolving his guilt over his family!s death. Dora, a former midwife, assists with Elaine!s delivery, while Elaine!s husband, the book!s only two-dimensional character, provides a threatening presence. Thayer!s knowledge of gardening, sheepherding, and even bagpipes (Peter!s avocation) enriches the story, and the uncertainty of Peter and Elaine!s future together keeps the pages turning. Highly recommended."Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A lyrical tale of piety and grace as fostered by the simple life in rural Maine. During a brutal ice storm, what Peter thinks is a ghost at the end of his drive turns out to be the very real--and pregnant--Elaine Sinclair. Peter is a self-created hermit living on the Maine coast in a one-room cabin, subsistence farming and herding his sheep. This prosaic life, however, is haunted by memories of his wife and children, who died in a fire years earlier--memories so powerful that he keeps a dollhouse and repositions his proxy family on a daily basis. When Elaine arrives, he begrudgingly takes her in for the night, then finds that the frail, pale woman is a match for him in inner strength: she refuses to leave. A faithful Jehovah's Witness, she's running from her husband and feels that Peter's homestead is the perfect place for her to gather the wisdom to decide what to do about her marriage and coming baby--who may require a blood transfusion upon birth, though, even if so, Elaine will forbid it for religious reasons. Second-novelist Thayer (Strong for Potatoes, 1998) creates characters here that conform to their circumstances--Peter weakened from years of isolation, Elaine so devout she's blind to any resistance. Days turn into weeks, and soon Peter finds comfort in Elaine, accepts the fact that she will stay until the baby is born, and begins to find a new lease on life. Elaine cooks, helps with the gardening, and prays for her unborn child. Though her dilemma provides impetus for the tale, it's Peter's metamorphoses that give it momentum as he begins to play his bagpipes again and finally confronts the sins that he feels contributed to his family's death. Immersed in the daily rituals and small life-and-death struggles of the farm, a story that emerges as a quiet testament to the powers of faith and forgiveness. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A hermit opens his heart to love in Thayer's moving second novel (after Strong for Potatoes), which takes its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson. When a fire kills his wife, son and daughter, Peter MacQueen retreats to his coastal cabin in Maine, interacting with nobody except Dora, an old Passamaquoddy Indian, and his faithful pet, Dog. He also finds solace in his bagpipes, his few books and a mournful ritual involving his dead daughter's dollhouse, but a guilty secret relentlessly haunts him. A pregnant woman, Elaine, on the run from her cruel husband, shows up on his property, desperate for shelter from a winter storm; the two share a bittersweet healing. Initially irritated by Elaine's presence, Peter eventually opens a tentative crack in his emotional door. Elaine tells him about the miscarriage she suffered when she was a teenager and about the excruciating tensions of growing up with healthy hormones in a restrictive Jehovah's Witness environment. After Elaine's daughter is born and named AzelinÄ"Spared by Jehovah"Ä Elaine must decide whether to stay or return to her husband. Thayer's tale is deeply poetic and quasi-Freudian, with the dollhouse in Peter's cabin serving as a potent symbol of the characters' unconscious desires. The other central motif is Elaine's pregnancy: ideas of renewal, fear and sacrifice in bringing forth new life come to the surface when it becomes clear that Azelin may need a blood transfusion, which Elaine's religion prohibits. If Thayer is heavy-handed with such themes, her characters are plainspoken and lucid as well as complex, and their progress toward emotional healing becomes an engrossing story with inspirational power. Agent, Sandy Choron. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Peter could not care less that a brutal ice storm has cut him off from the roads that lead into town. For almost 20 years, the retired musician has isolated himself in a remote cabin on the coast of Maine, filling his long days by tending to his animals and re-creating, in an old dollhouse, the life he used to have with his wife and two small children, who all perished in a fire. When he ventures out of his cabin after the storm, he discovers, to his great shock and dismay, a pregnant woman with a wicked bruise on her right cheek. Elaine is in need of shelter, and Peter reluctantly complies. One night stretches into months, and these two lonely people eventually reveal their tortured secrets. Thayer's sheep-shearing coastal region is vividly described, and her characters are raw and realistic. Peter--his thoughts and outbursts often tinged with self-deprecation and cynical humor--is no stereotypical gruff hermit. Elaine--with her alabaster beauty and unwavering religion--is no wimp, and theirs is an unexpected romance. --Kristin Kloberdanz