The Northern Reach

I’m always delighted to share new book finds with you. This one concerns a heart-wrenching first novel about the power of place and family ties, the weight of the stories we choose to tell, and the burden of those we hide.

For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett comes THE NORTHERN REACH, an evocative and deeply moving multi-generational novel from debut author W. S. Winslow (Flatiron Books; on sale: March 2, 2021).

Frozen in grief after the loss of her son at sea, Edith Baines stares across the water at a schooner, under full sail yet motionless in the winter wind and surging tide of the Northern Reach. Edith seems to be hallucinating. Or is she?

Edith’s boat-watch opens THE NORTHERN REACH, set in the coastal town of Wellbridge, Maine, where townspeople squeeze a living from the perilous bay or scrape by on the largesse of the summer folk and whatever they can cobble together, salvage, or grab.

At the center of town life is the Baines family—land-rich, cash-poor descendants of town founders—along with the ne’er-do-well Moody clan, the Martins of Skunk Pond, and the dirt farming, bootlegging Edgecombs. Over the course of the twentieth century, the families intersect, interact, and intermarry, grappling with secrets and prejudices that span generations, opening new wounds and reckoning with old ghosts.

W. S. Winslow's THE NORTHERN REACH is a breathtaking debut about the complexity of family, the cultural legacy of place, and the people and experiences that shape us.

Meet the Author

W. S. Winslow_credit Jeff Roberts

W. S. Winslow was born and raised in Maine but spent most of her working life in San Francisco and New York in corporate communications and marketing. A ninth-generation Mainer, she now spends most of the year in a small town Downeast.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French from the University of Maine, and an MFA from NYU. Her fiction has been published in Yemassee Journal and Bird's Thumb. The Northern Reach is her first novel.

While the weather is still cool with just hints of spring around the corner, THE NORTHERN REACH is the perfect kind of immersive, atmospheric novel to curl up with on a cozy evening.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Doesn’t that opening have you thinking of all sorts of things that can happen in this book?