Silver Linings

An auspicious debut in the field of historical fiction, this novel provides an arresting view of the recent past. In the Victorian era, when bustled women were a dependent caste, Emma Cadman and her widowed mother, Beth, forge a loving but somehow unsatisfactory relationship. Reduced to straitened circumstances by the apparently accidental death of their provider, they relocate, and find employment and relative security. Shadowing Emma's relationships with prospective suitors is a childhood demonincest, and Beth's self-willed blindness to the danger her husband was inflicting on his daughter. Emma's deliverance is accomplished through a young Scotsman's persistent love; an epilogue tells of their thriving in the new world of Canada. With credible characters who struggle in realistic situations, this novel has a contemporary resonance. March 5