The river, the lighthouse, and her family are all that thirteen-year-old Weezie Bloom has ever wanted or needed. Not so for her ma who, without warning, one day leaves the lighthouse and the family forever.
Healing is slow, but the family survives, guided by their father's strength and love. Weezie narrates the changing seasons and evolving moods of a year without Ma—a transforming year at the twighlight of the Great Depression. With language as glorious as the autumn landscape on the banks of the Hudson river, Weezie's richly textured story will appeal to generations of readers, transporting them to the lighthouse that Weezie calls home.
An evocative, unique setting and a riveting family drama come together in a timeless novel of heartbreak and hope that's also filled with the fun that only life on the River can supply.
The leaves along the Hudson are really beautiful this year. The river is crowded during the day with people who have come from all over the United States to see them. People come from as far away as Arkansas and California to see the same ordinary sycamore, oak, and hickory leaves I'm looking at right now. These tourists will probably send postcards to their people back home and tell them how lovely it all is. Magnificent and breathtaking, they'll write. Simply gorgeous. They'll be telling the truth: it is lovely.
These visitors can see the beauty in the view from the lighthouse. I wish Ma could.
—From the Lighthouse