MOONGLOW BAY

A collection of five stories that focus on themes of nature and family.

In the titular story, Bridger Stills gathers sea urchins with his boatmate. He sells his catch for a low price to Fang Moon, Bridger’s girlfriend Maxie’s father, and the owner of Fang Moon Fish Company. Bridger also encounters his 18-year-old daughter, Gwynn, whom he hasn’t seen in years. In “Tropic of Angels,” 7-year-old Carthy and his mother, Yolanda, say goodbye to his father, who leaves to go out to sea. When Yolanda begins having strange visions, she’s taken away to San Isidro while Carthy stays behind with his grandfather. “Cloud Forest” follows Terence, whose life is described as “a continuum of pressing concerns.” His wife and his friend Timothy die, and after Timothy’s funeral, the dead man’s father gives Terence an enigmatic note about a cloud forest, which Terence seeks out. “Cedars of Lebanon” looks at the experience of Nadine, a Red Cross worker who responds to mountainside fires; she reminisces about when her father was alive and they would go on hikes to the nature reserve. In “Island of Lost Dreams,” a group of “ambitious and educated” young people long to leave the island on a fishing trawler, assigned to pick them up at nightfall. McCarey, who wrote Oceans Apart (2016), returns with a seamless and focused compilation of stories. Over the course of this collection, he presents readers with colorful descriptions of scenery, as in the opening line of “Moonglow Bay” (“The sky was swirling with the pastel colors of evening twilight as a fishing boat, the Floozie, made its way into the sheltered waters of Moonglow Harbor”), and there are plenty of tense, dynamic moments. A recurring theme of the connection between man and nature is clear and well developed. Characters are shown experiencing moments of loss and flights of nostalgia while also yearning for more in their present; most are relatable and revealed to have realistic thoughts and dreams, but a few depictions, such as those of Fang and Maxie, feel stereotypical and shallow.

Mostly effective tales of characters dealing with emotional departures.