BETWEEN THE LIGHTHOUSE AND YOU

Unable to accept her mother’s death, a 12-year-old girl visits the Florida island where she disappeared in a storm six years ago.

Alice has selective mutism resulting from her refusal to believe in her mother’s death. A cultural anthropologist, Alice’s mother specialized in studying people’s communications with the dead. When Alice discovers a letter to her mother from Aviles Island lighthouse keeper John Mercury, she learns that he agreed to speak with her about what the islanders call tidings, or messages between the living and the dead—and she’s determined to go there to seek his help. Alice’s father agrees to a family vacation on Aviles, hoping it will bring Alice closure. Arriving with her dad, her dad’s girlfriend, and her younger sister just in time for the Tidings Festival, Alice learns Mercury has died but meets his grandson Leo, whose family now operates the lighthouse. Still mourning his grandfather’s death, Leo realizes Alice wants the same contact with her deceased mother he has with his grandfather, and he decides to help her. As they row out to sea bearing Alice’s tiding to her mother, a terrific storm strikes. Could history repeat itself? The alternating first-person present-tense voices of Alice and Leo provide immediacy and intimacy, while the interactions between and among their down-to-earth families add realism, making the implausible feel possible. The island lighthouse setting proves an ideal venue for otherworldly communication. Main characters are presumably White.

A heartwarming, emotional tale of family, grief, and acceptance.