October 8, 2013 / Leslie

Review: Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart

Sanctuary Line
by Jane Urquhart

Genre: Literature
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Publish Date: September 3, 2013
Format: Hardcover | 240 pages
Rating: 4 of 5

Publisher’s Synopsis:

Set in the present day on a farm at the shores of Lake Erie, Jane Urquhart’s stunning new novel weaves elements from the nineteenth-century past, in Ireland and Ontario, into a gradually unfolding contemporary story of events in the lives of the members of one family that come to alter their futures irrevocably.

There are ancestral lighthouse-keepers, seasonal Mexican workers; the migratory patterns and survival techniques of the Monarch butterfly; the tragedy of a young woman’s death during a tour of duty in Afghanistan; three very different but equally powerful love stories.

My Thoughts:

Liz Crane has returned to her family’s farmhouse on the shore of Lake Erie, a once happy place where she spent many summers as a young girl. Now the house is empty, the farm falling into ruins and most of her family has moved on or passed away. Liz is now an entomologist studying the migratory habits of the Monarch butterfly; the old farm seems like a good place for her to do her research.

Before long Liz is haunted by nostalgic thoughts from the past. Triggering these thought were the recent death of Amanda, her cousin and constant playmate during those lakeside summers. The summer when Liz was sixteen, her uncle, Amanda’s father, left the farm one night never to be seen again. Eventually Liz reveals the mystery of his disappearance and the sorrow and pain surrounding it.

The story is told by Liz in a beautifully descriptive narrative, delicately peeling back the layers of her family history and their relationship with the land. Slow moving, richly detailed and with well-developed characters, the reader needs to have patience to appreciate this novel. The pace is leisurely and meandering.

This is a very literary, multi-layered novel, with symbolism throughout. The plot doesn’t come together until the last quarter of the book. There were a few times when I considered abandoning the book because, while I do enjoy literature, nothing was happening to move this story along. Yes, the pace of the novel was slow, but the ending was powerful, thought-provoking and one that will linger. The wait was worth it.