Dancing in a Distant Place

This first U.S. release from Scottish novelist Dewar centers on Iris Chisholm, an unassuming school teacher leading an ordinary existence in the late 1960s until her husband dies in a car accident. Left in financial disarray from his secret gambling addiction, a grief-stricken Iris uproots her two adolescent children-Sophy and Scott-and takes a position as the head teacher at a small school in the rural Highlands town of Green Cairns. As an escape from her own problems, Iris throws herself into the tribulations of her students-while her grieving children run wild: Sophy tries her hand at graffiti and Scott, a blossoming hippie, has an affair with the local anarchist's wife. Meanwhile, Iris becomes the subject of town gossip with two men vying for her attention: reckless lawyer Michael Kennedy and down-to-earth handyman Charles ""Chas"" Harper. Fans of Maeve Binchy may enjoy Dewar's perceptive omniscient guidance through the cozy Scottish world of these likeable, flawed characters.