The Muriad — Marty Anderson

Muriel Larkwood dreams of many things: of the ocean, of a love someday, of her father's return from Tidewater, the great harbor city where Muriel was born but where misfortune would not permit her family to stay. Fleeing to a village far inland, there the Larkwoods have lived to the present hour, the week of Muriel's sixteenth birthday. The Muriad is the story of this week -- this week in not only Muriel's life, but also in the life of her best friend, Camille Sage, an orphan who lives with her older brother at the village inn, The Alabaster Box. In this week much will happen and many people, young and old, will come and go. There will come Thomas Sage, Camille's brother, who cherishes a hope where Muriel is concerned; Mynah Birdwell, the Sage siblings' guardian; Muriel's stern yet merciful mother; Mr. Breyer, a man with position in the village church; Katarin Pauxley, a young woman endangered at home; a black carriage that roams the streets; and a mysterious visitor from the east. This is the world and these are the characters of Marty Anderson's exceptional novel of upheaval and celebration and turbulence and brilliant calm -- of possible love and probable loss and unpredictable life.