When Jack, librarian and curator of legends, meets Rona, she puts aside her sealskin to live as his human wife.
Jack knows all selkie stories end the same: the seal-woman always finds her stolen skin and leaves. But he hasn’t stolen Rona’s skin, and they both believe their relationship is different. He doesn’t need to be that guy. She doesn’t need to run. But as their children grow into troubled teens, Jack and Rona begin falling into roles they’ve sworn to put aside.
Most selkie stories are about the beginning or the end, but this one is about the middle. How do you live with a family past of people disappearing into the sea? How do you avoid the same wrong act everyone has committed before you? And what is love—for a child, a spouse, a mortal world—in the face of history?
Set in a mythic, contemporary Pacific Northwest shaped by Native and European storytelling, artist communes, and corporate fakelore, The Sea-Glass Shore is a domestic fable about the power of the past and the making of a daily present.
