Sea Room

A thoughtful generational family drama set in the seaside village of Buck Harbor, Maine, Gautreau's debut explores WWII's effects on the Dupuy family and their saltwater farm. For 10-year-old Jordi Dupuy, life is simple, filled with days of lobster trapping and sailing excursions with his father, Gil, and grandfather, Pip. But when President Roosevelt's yacht arrives with a battalion of U.S. warships close behind, Jordi braces for the ""far different life"" ahead of him, as Gil enlists to fight in the war and temporarily shelves their plan to build a new sailboat. Jordi is ecstatic when his father's letters from abroad arrive, but furious when the sinister Virgil Blount is smitten with Jordi's mother, Lydie. Pip and wealthy Uncle Chr tien are there to pick up the pieces when the war intensifies and claims Gil's life, leaving the women to mourn and the men to build Jordi's boat without Gil. Years later, accusations fly against Virgil when the barn containing the nearly finished boat is torched, as well as against Jordi when another family member dies; not even approaching Hurricane Clara can squelch the melodrama of the courtroom conclusion. Gautreau's prose, accented with charmingly distinctive New England vernacular, demonstrates a strong eye for detailed atmosphere, which nicely counterbalances a few mawkish moments, and the characters are wonderfully rendered. This is a charming, heartfelt debut for Gautreau, who confidently abandoned a business career to write it. Agent, Kimberley Cameron of Reece Halsey North. (May 15) Forecast: MacAdam/Cage's growing reputation for publishing and promoting high-quality debuts should help draw attention to this quietly accomplished novel.