Publisher: NAL / ChristianAudio.com
Published: Print – February 4, 2014 / Audio – March 11, 2015
Source: Print – Personal copy / Audio via Library
Summary:
A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away….
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?
My thoughts:
I’ve slowly been making my way through Susan Meissner’s backlist and this is one of the books I’ve been meaning to read ever since hearing her talk about it when I attended a book signing a few years ago. And I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to read it.
This story is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking and I could not have loved it more. It pulled me right in and never let go. Having a scarf connect the two stories worked so well and I was completely captivated. I love stories set in NYC, especially when they deal with the past and this one really hit that sweet spot for me. It took two tragic events and intertwines them in such a way that you just cannot help but be totally wrapped up in what is going on. The way this story takes these horrible events and turns them around shows there is always that light at the end of the tunnel.
I enjoyed getting to know both Taryn in the present storyline and Clara in the past storyline. While most of the book does focus on Clara, I still felt that we got to know these women and feel their pain at what had to be one of the worst moments of their lives. But the highlight was seeing how these women recovered and moved on…because that is ultimately what this book is about – that resilience and how we move on.
It’s still amazing to me that these events even happened – and I was alive for one of them – but what is even more so is how life drastically changed for those involved. I’m so thankful we have books like this one to remind us that these events did happen and that we need to remember them.
Audio thoughts:
This book was fantastic on audio and that was partly due to the narrator, Tavia Gilbert. She did such a great job bringing this story to life, giving each character their own unique voice. Her pacing and intonation were spot on. It was a great listening experience.
