CLOUD NINE - Softcover

Rice, Luanne

4.01

4,794 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006512925 ISBN 13: 9780006512929

Publisher: Harper, 1999

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A deeply moving and resonant novel about the power of love and family feeling in the face of suffering and change.

A beloved only child, Sarah was brought up on a wild island, where the people were as one with the landscape and where her father, George, farmed geese. After her mother died of cancer, he brought her up alone, but their lives were further twisted by trouble after Sarah was jilted by Zeke, an island boy, who left her pregnant and devastated. Shortly afterwards, Zeke was killed in a car crash, and Sarah fled the island for a new life on the mainland, leaving her father feeling rejected and angry.

Now, fourteen years later, Sarah, making a living through her quilting business called Cloud Nine, is herself recovering from cancer. The illness threatened more than her life – the trauma brought to a head her difficult relationship with her son, Mike, who finally left her to go and live with his grandfather.

It is at this point that their lives elide with another tragic family. Will Burke, the pilot she charters to visit Mike, has never recovered from the death of his own teenage son, which wrecked his marriage and has left his daughter Susan like a piece of flotsam drifting between Will, her mother and her mother’s ghastly new husband. In the tense, emotive story that unfolds, all their lives are changed as love, hope and endurance eventually find a way to transcend suffering.

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Review:

‘Luanne Rice touches the deepest, most tender corners of the heart’
Tami Hoag

‘Exciting, emotional, terrific’
New York Times Book Review

‘Rice has an elegant style, a sharp eye and a real warmth’
San Francisco Chronicle

From the Back Cover:

A novel of rare emotional intensity, a poignant story about the power of love and family feeling in the face of suffering and change.

A beloved only child, Sarah Talbot was brought up on a wild island where the people lived as one with the land and sea. But the death of her mother shattered the idyll, driving Sarah and her father apart. Unable to deal with the old man’s grief and bitterness, Sarah fled the island for a new life on the mainland with her son.

Fourteen years later, after celebrating a birthday she thought she’d never live to see, Sarah returns to the island. Having, against all the odds, beaten the disease that threatened to take her life, she is determined to take advantage of the new beginning she has been granted. And in Will Burke, the charter pilot who flies her to the island, she finds a kindred spirit. Together they discover that love and hope and courage can transcend suffering and repair the ravages of the past ...

ACCLAIM FOR LUANNE RICE:

“Luanne Rice touches the deepest, most tender corners of the heart”
TAMI HOAG

“Rice has an elegant style, a sharp eye and a rela warmth. In her hands families – and their values – seem worth cherishing”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Exciting, emotional, terrific”
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

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