North of the Tension Line
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4.2 • 13 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Fiona Campbell is a newcomer to tiny Ephraim, Wisconsin. Populated with artists and summer tourists, Ephraim has just enough going on to satisfy her city tastes. But she is fascinated and repelled by the furthest tip of Door County peninsula, Washington Island, utterly removed from the hubbub of modern life. Fiona's visits there leave her refreshed in spirit, but convinced that only lunatics and hermits could survive a winter in its frigid isolation. In a moment of weakness, Fiona is goaded into accepting a dare that she cannot survive the winter on the island in a decrepit, old house. Armed with some very fine single malt scotch and a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Fiona sets out to win the dare, and discovers that small town life is not nearly as dull as she had foreseen. Abandoning the things she has always thought important, she encounters the vicious politics of small town life, a ruthless neighbor, persistent animals, a haunted ferry captain, and the peculiar spiritual renewal of life north of the tension line.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A remote island in northern Lake Michigan provides an evocative setting for Riordan's clumsy but well-meaning debut novel about a young woman who settles "north of the tension line" on a whim. Freelance writer Fiona Campbell delights in the "pristine serenity" of picturesque Ephraim, Wisc., a time capsule from the 1850s, and decides to buy a rundown house on nearby Washington Island. Soon she's fixing the place up with the help of Elizabeth, an old college friend who just happens to run a gallery in Ephraim, while her spiteful neighbor Stella schemes to get rid of her. As Fiona vacillates between enjoying the isolation and feeling cut off, the author adds the story of Elizabeth's budding romance with a misanthropic coffee shop owner. While the landscape is lovely, Fiona and Elizabeth seem much older than their stated early 30s, and the ending is rushed, leaving both women dependent on others for their happiness in this quiet story of characters tethered by inertia.
