I did a reading challenge for 2013 to read one book set in each Canadian province and territory. Most provinces were fairly easy and even the territories didn't prove too difficult but I had trouble finding something set in New Brunswick that wasn't written by David Adams Richards or Beth Powning. I like both those authors but Richards seemed a little too dark for my taste right now and I've read Powning's books. Then somewhere in cyberspace someone mentioned this book. It was set in NB, was by an author I had never read before and, even better, my library had a copy of it.

Told in the first person by Sarah, this book revolves around the family cottage on the shore at Indian Point. There is an Indian Point in New Brunswick. In fact the town of St. Andrews (or St. Andrews by-the-Sea as it is sometimes called) is situated on Indian Point. But that's not the Indian Point of this book because the narrator says the cottage "is a white-washed constant in the salt wind that twists in off Northumberland Strait." Other clues about the town would tell you it wasn't the tony St. Andrews. There is the Whittaker's place for one thing, the yard of which is filled with junk, and the beer parlor, and the falling down woolen mill. The family of the narrator used to be the owners of the mill and big shots in town. They've rather come down in the world but the shore is still a magical place for a child.

The summer the narrator was 12 her father had some kind of a collapse and had to go to hospital and while he was still recovering her mother gave birth. So the narrator spent the whole summer at the shore with her Aunt Maud, closely supervised by her great-aunts Byrd and Wynd. Her great-uncle, just called K, lived close by but he wasn't much of a supervisor. When Uncle K took her for a walk they ended up at the beer parlor where Uncle K had two draft before taking her to the store to buy molasses cookies. Often the girl wandered by herself or with 3 other girls. Two of them were summer visitors like herself but one was a local. In fact she was one of the notorious Whittakers.

This was a lovely reading experience which took me back to my own youth. I didn't go to a cottage but I was given free rein to wander around our farm and, when I could ride a bicycle, our district. I'm disappointed that McNutt hasn't written any other novels. This book was published in 1997 so there's been plenty of time for another but it seems she has written some articles and has also directed plays. Hope she will soon have time to create more fiction. ( )