The cost of war is universal. Who pays the price of peace?

Award-winning author William Carpenter examines the bitter legacy of 9/11 and terrorism in this ambitious novel about the nature of conflict and loss. Nick Colonna is a young veteran returning from Iraq to his hometown on the coast of Maine after an IED explosion killed the other members of his vehicle crew and left him deaf. Struggling with trauma, in a half-world between sanity and madness, Nick finds solace in memories of better times on nearby Amber Island: a private sanctuary owned by a Boston family and its illustrious patriarch, Marston Fletcher. The family is set on developing the island, much to the despair of the youngest Fletcher daughter: Julia, who stumbles upon Nick as he settles into becoming a worker on the island. As Nick battles his inner demons, Julia fights her family, and Amber Island faces demolition, Carpenter raises many questions about what survives carnage and loss, and where in a divided and chaotic world is there room for peace and silence.

Carpenter grew up in Waterville, Maine, graduated from Dartmouth and got a PhD at the University of Minnesota, taught at the University of Chicago, then returned to Maine to help found the College of the Atlantic, where he has taught for 48 years. He is the recipient of the Pablo Neruda award, the Black Warrior award, and the AWP award in poetry. His previous novels are A Keeper of Sheep, set on Cape Cod in the 1980s, and The Wooden Nickel, set in a Maine Coast lobstering community. He and the writer Donna Gold live in an old coastal inn and spend summers exploring Maine islands in their family sloop, Northern Light.