Up Island

Heroines who are beset by crises while trying to do their best by family and friends are Siddons's stock-in-trade. The appealing protagonist of her 12th novel (after Heartbreak Hotel) is Molly Redwine of Atlanta, who for two decades has devoted herself to her Coca Cola-exec husband, Tee, her two children--and the mythic concept of family togetherness. Now with 10 extra pounds bulking her statuesque figure and a nearly empty nest, Molly is devastated when Tee announces he's leaving her for a young attorney in Coke's legal department. When her manipulative, fault-finding mother suddenly dies shortly after they have had a rancorous conversation, an emotionally destroyed Molly takes temporary refuge with a friend on Martha's Vineyard--a terrain and atmosphere that Siddons evokes with insightful accuracy. Then, locked out of her own house by Tee's incredibly uncouth and presumptuous mistress, Molly impulsively decides to stay on the Vineyard through the winter as caretaker to two sick elderly women, the cancer-stricken adult son of one of them, two hostile swans and, eventually, her own father, a widower sunk in a deep depression. Naturally, this is the catalyst for a typical Siddons situation in which a woman whose life is in shambles finds love, security and meaning just where she least expected it. Siddons's main fault is laying on drama and complications with a trowel, as she again does here, especially in allowing Molly's mother to maraud in Molly's dreams. Yet her novels, including this one, are redeemed by her ability to deal with larger issues--here, loss of many kinds--while her engaging characters find their destinies in a suspenseful story. 250,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; simultaneous audio; author tour; first serial and dramatic rights: Virginia Barber. (June)