The Red Mitten — Sarah Birdsall

Memories have a way of coming back, drowning the present with the ghosts of the past. Out of Alaska's little-known lake country comes this darkly elegant tale that is part romance, part mystery, even part ghost story: the red mitten leaves its unique mark on many people. Chief among them is Katie Gibson, a dream-haunted young woman scarred within and without by the events that led to her self-exile from her childhood home in western Alaska. Returning now as an adult to the harshly beautiful shores of Lake Ilmenof, she must confront the memories--and the reality--of the two brothers who were her friends and lovers, the father who seemed to turn away from her and her mother just when he was most needed, the friends who peopled her life at the lake, and the tragedy that brought that life to a halt. It is only by uncovering the truths underlying that tragedy that Katie can once again begin to live fully, and to move toward love.