Yvonne is a recent widow and the mother of grown twins - Matthew and Aurelia. Her husband Peter was killed in a hit and run accident approximately two years ago. Matthew has always been the brainy one - excelling at everything he tries, Peter was always so very proud of him. Aurelia is a troubled young lady living in Matthew's shadow. She has been in and out of rehab since the age of sixteen. Yvonne is sort of estranged from her children. She doesn't understand them and sees them only occasionally. Aurelia always has some crisis going on in her life. She didn't have a very good relationship with Peter before his death due mainly to Aurelia's problems and Peter had simply quit talking about her.
Yvonne was becoming more depressed and didn't know how she would continue to cope. She decides a trip to Turkey, particularly Datca, a small village where she and Peter spent their honeymoon several decades ago, she finds a rental house on the Internet, contacts the owner, packs her bags and sets off on a journey to immerse herself in memories and try to become again the person she was so long ago. Things become complicated and instead of being comforted by her memories they trouble her.
One day at the beach she meets Amhet, a young Turkish boy, who sells sea shells. She commissions him to find shells for her, but what she would do with them is any one's guess. This is her way of making sure he would be at the beach each day. Yvonne becomes deeply attached to him and begins to compare him to Matthew when he was Amhet's age. Unfortunately a terrible accident involving Amhet throws her life in turmoil. She get lost in a sandstorm and believes she is going to die all alone in Turkey.
The novel is really about a tormented women traveling along in a foreign country and being unable to speak the language. She is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after losing her husband much too soon and in such a terrible way. She wants to connect with her children, but don't know how. Ms. Vida does an excellent job of keeping you turning the pages, you can sympathize with Yvonne, feel her loss, her frustration, and her desire to become whole again.
Highly recommended.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.