The Common Bond
-
- $0.99
-
- $0.99
Publisher Description
When Morgan Cary flies home to Hawaii after a decade spent in California, he arrives with a broken heart and an overwhelming sense of guilt surrounding the death of his wife. He finds his way back to the comfort of Hilo's wet green mountain slopes, the pearl-colored volcanic haze,and the tropical perfumes, but he also returns to the painful and persistent memories of his early days with Victoria - from the moment she walked into his life on the arm of his childhood best friend.
Morgan's ghosts are many: they appear at the docks, in the motel rooms of the Sunset Lanai, and in the Red Pants fisherman's bar in Kona. He loses himself working alone as a commercial fishing boat captain, trolling the Pacific for yellowfin tuna and blue marlin, trying to surmount the crushing presence of his past. As he spirals further into his grief, the hope of deliverance into the future appears through an unexpected friendship with a native Hawaiian family, and forces Morgan to sift through the worst of his memories as he searches for his life in the solace of the sea.
Resonant with human emotion and insight, this novel is an exquisite story of precision and grace that captures the depths of the human capacity for guilt, and the traps of compassion and hope in redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Merritt goes to the Aloha State for his insightful latest foray into domestic upheaval. Morgan Cary is a one-hit wonder novelist and former Kona fisherman who returns to Hawaii following the sudden death of his alluring but emotionally volatile wife, Victoria. Uncertain of the events leading up to Victoria's death and immensely guilt-ridden, Morgan spends his days incapacitated with grief and his nights boozing. It's not until he meets Ben Kamakani, a fellow fisherman, that Morgan's life begins to regain a sense of purpose, and after Ben dies, Morgan buys his boat and truck and begins turning himself around. While Morgan's life rolls on, Merritt backtracks to unfurl Victoria's story, loaded with abandonment, betrayal and violence. It is soon clear that though Morgan and Victoria were married, they remained separated by their inabilities (or unwillingness) to understand one another. Merritt has the right instincts when it comes to exposing the vagaries of human relationships, and though his novel's structure is unruly, Merritt crafts a thorough emotional examination of a couple who spend their lives side by side while managing to remain unknown to one another.
