The House on Salt Hay Road by Carin Clevidence

For years I've been sitting on the front porch of our summer house in Portsmouth, RI (the same house that Jim's mom, now 82, went to as a little girl) looking out on the Narragannset Bay, beyond the lighthouse towards Hog and Prudence Islands. Both are small islands, just a few miles long and 1/2 or so mile wide, filled nicely in the summer months with 'summer folk' and nearly depleted in the winter months. I have always been fascinated with the 'year rounders' those who make their living off of the ocean and send their kids to the one room school house. They must shun those who tumble in for July and August, hiring the women to clean their houses and the men to maintain them. Residents have to take a ferry to get supplies beyond what the one small grocery store in town can provide.

Another writer, Katherine Towler, has written 2 books about Prudence Island, Evening Ferry and Snow Island. I devoured both of them, reading on our front lawn, lying on my blanket and looking over at the very island she was writing about. How when summers are magical, winters nearly unbearable, but the hearts and souls of the 'islanders' remained on that place even if they long to escape.

Salt Hay Road takes place on Long Island's Fire Neck 'just east of Southease' in the late 1930s and is the story of a splintered family living together by happenstance. Mavis and Roy are brother and sister, both mid-aged and broken hearted, neither able to make a life for themselves beyond the place they have lived nearly all of their lives, their father, Scudder, who spent his early years rescuing cargo and people from boats shipwrecked on the island and his orphaned grandchildren, Nancy and Clayton.

Nancy wants to get off of the island and sees her chance when a young man comes to visit one summer. She wants to take Clayton with her to Boston but he refuses to go, Fire Neck is his home and its beaches, fishing boats and sandy dunes are his passion.

When the (real) hurricane of 1938 hits their island and home tragedy strikes and the splintered family is blown apart.

I loved this book, the '38 hurricane hit our house as well, though it wasn't swept away like many other homes were. As I close my eyes and think of those islands across the bay I'd like to think that not much has changed since back then. Undoubtedly folks built their homes back up and went back to their lives as usual.
A good read .. first novel by this author. Recommended if you're on the beach and want to escape to another time and place.