Another Shore

Lyn, 17, takes a summer job in a reconstructed village in Nova Scotia, and finds herself transported back in time to the original French settlement. She is accepted there as a member of a local family, and gradually begins to adapt to new conditions and routines. Lyn learns that she is not alone in her predicamentamong the villagers are two who have similarly been thrown back from the 20th centurybut this knowledge does not help her solve the puzzle of how to return to her own time. As her attachments to those around her deepen, her dilemma becomes even more complex: not merely how to go back to her century, but whether to try to go back at all. Bond evokes the details, ambience and inhabitants of an 18th century port village so skillfully that the reader happily makes every necessary suspension of disbelief. The novel also explores such rich, timeless themes as identity, loyalty and the ambiguity of many necessary choices. It finishes on a note so unexpected and striking that the book's power will not easily forgotten. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)