The Other Island: Ben's Story

The sequel to Islands of Time

De: Barbara Kent Lawrence

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In Islands of Time, Becky Granger, the daughter of a prominent New York family visiting Maine for the summer, told her story about falling in love with Ben Bunker, an islander from a family of Maine fishermen. Now, in the sequel, Ben tells his side of the story. Ben’s account deepens our understanding of the characters and events in Islands of Time but stands as a compelling story on its own. Ben, now a fisherman and a marine biologist, also shares his experience and perspective on the changing fisheries of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, and the ways in which these changes affect his family and community, as well as all of us who share this planet and its oceans.
Readers have already praised Ben's Story.
"BEN'S STORY is a moving and beautifully written novel of Maine coastal fishing communities: a document of a way of life as it disappears beyond a far, watery horizon."
Paul Doiron, author, Knife Creek and many other compelling books.
Growing up on the Maine coast, I've met the characters of "Ben's Story," or or at least their real life counterparts, the hardworking islanders with a deep love and pride for their homes, the fishermen who struggle with the ever-changing fisheries, and the summer people enraptured by the beauty of this state but rarely touched by the harsh realities of earning a living here. In "Ben’s Story," Barbara Lawrence tosses readers into this world, teaching them about the history and realities of fishing in the Gulf of Maine while wrapping them up in a bewitching story about love that endures the ravages of time and the changing tides.
Aislinn Sarnacki, Bangor Daily News
"I especially enjoyed Ben’s Story for its detailed exploration of fisheries issues in the Gulf of Maine as the backdrop for an incredibly compelling story. Ben is a fishermen who is not afraid to ask the hard questions about why so many fish species have experienced dramatic decline. He works with scientists to help answer these questions, all the while fishing and attempting to make sense of the loss of a childhood love. Lawrence weaves the two parallel stories in a way that provides insight into relationships between people and place, between fishing and fish populations, between islanders and summer people. As a reader, you can’t help but feel a connection between the grief of a lost love and grief over the loss of fish that sustained Ben’s people for generations."
Natalie Springuel, Marine Extension Associate, Maine Sea Grant and liaison to Coastal Community Development Program of the National Sea Grant Network
"Lawrence has captured a number of the subtleties of the intersection of different coastal cultures and woven it into a lovely love story, backed up by the fishing history of the time."
Robin Alden, Executive Director, Penobscot East Resource Center and co-founder of the Maine Fishermen's Forum