In mid-1900, Catherine Wainwright finds herself in the middle of a scandal of her making. Out of money, out of friends, and out of options, she packs her bags and moves from Dayton, Ohio, to Galveston, Texas, to marry the one man who has not shunned her. He is Oscar Williams, a childhood friend, recently widowed and with a young son who desperately needs a mother. Galveston is a shock enough to Catherine, but when she sees her new home, a modest dairy farm not yet fitted with electricity or indoor plumbing, Catherine's doubts mount. It doesn't help that Oscar's housekeeper, Nan, is none-too-pleased to see this newcomer who has irrevocably dashed any hope of Oscar (and his son) ever becoming hers. And then, just days after Catherine's arrival, a massive hurricane bears down on the island changing everything with its relentless wind and powerful waves.
Ann Weisgarber's The Promise is fiction writing at its best. She has created multi-dimensional characters who evoke every emotion from the reader, sometimes simultaneously. And she places these complicated people in the midst of one of the country's worst natural disasters, which she captures with the same precision and effect as the characters who are "living" it. (For those interested in learning more about the hurricane itself, Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm is a must read.)
This is a wonderful, pager-turner of a novel. Avid historical fiction readers should especially love it.
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