Title: The Year of FogAuthor: Michelle Richmond
Publication Date: March 27, 2007
From Goodreads:
Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach. In the seconds when Abby Mason—photographer, fiancée soon-to-be-stepmother—looks into her camera and commits her greatest error. Heartbreaking, uplifting, and beautifully told, here is the riveting tale of a family torn apart, of the search for the truth behind a child’s disappearance, and of one woman’s unwavering faith in the redemptive power of love—all made startlingly fresh through Michelle Richmond’s incandescent sensitivity and extraordinary insight.
Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.
Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in religion and scientific probability—but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost. With her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has led her to another man and into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.
Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.
Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in religion and scientific probability—but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost. With her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has led her to another man and into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.
My Thoughts:
I saw this book on Amazon for the first time a few months before it was released. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. When I finally got my hands on it, I let someone borrow it and never got it back. Then I completely forgot it existed until I saw it in a used book store and bought it again.
I am a sucker for a missing kids story, so this book was right up my alley: a woman takes her fiance's daughter out for the day and while they are at the beach, she gets distracted for a few seconds and the girl is kidnapped. The story then revolves around the woman and the girl's father's relationship. She believes that the girl is still alive while after finding no proof that she is alive and believing she drowned, the father needs to move on and get closure. This leaves the woman obsessed with getting the girl back and she eventually goes under hypnosis and takes a trip to hunt down her own leads.
I enjoyed this book for the most part. However, since Abby, the main character, is a photographer, we hear a lot of about photography. I mean A LOT. There are chapters dedicated to just photography skills, taking pictures and developing film. I feel that these chapters really ruined this book. I was not interested in any of this and it was like reading a manual. Had these been left out, the book would have been so much better. It disrupted the story at times.
Overall, the story was interesting and kept me reading. The writing was well done, even if those annoying chapters bogged it down a bit. There was only one plot point that didn't make sense to me and that was completely ignored and not cleaned up at the end, but not something big. I just really hate when books end like that. I need closure!
Have you read this book? What did you think?
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