BEYOND THAT, THE SEA

A debut novel that will warm the heart. An historical family drama spanning four decades.

The young protagonist of this heartwarming debut novel is shy, inquisitive 11 year old Beatrix, who has just arrived in Boston by ship, with a group of children evacuated from war-torn London in 1940 to be taken in to the safety of American homes. Her new "family" is the Gregorys: quiet scholarly Mr. G; warm and effusive Mrs. G (happy finally to have a daughter to fuss over); William (their appealing and debonair son, somewhat older than Beatrix) and Gerald (the jolly sweet younger boy). She is swept up instantly into their lives and marvels at new customs and patterns of life, and now she has two engaging and entertaining "brothers." Shortly after her arrival they all return to school, she unwinds in this new atmosphere, enjoys the sequence of American holidays, and writes home every Sunday. And without her even realizing it, before long life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than life with her own working-class parents back in England. The reader basks in Beatrix's coming into her own delightful self, in this more relaxed atmosphere where one does not have to carry a gas mask or worry if one's neighborhood will be bombed. The family spends summers in a family house on a private island in Maine, where they race to share with Beatrix their rituals and nostalgias, and she has her first taste of lobster. For all three children, this is an idyllic time, which ends abruptly when the war is over and her British parents send a ticket for her return trip. By this time the reader feels at one with each member of this family, and we would be heartbroken to leave them - but we don't have to. We follow their stories to a sweet/bittersweet/satisfying conclusion. Laura Spence-Ash's work has appeared or is forthcoming in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse and elsewhere. Her book reviews and critical essays appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She is the Founding Editor of CRAFT, and serves as a reader for The Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and One Story. She has received fellowships and support from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Sewanee Writers' Conference. She received her MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark where she received the Presidential Fellowship.