"Whose Waves These Are" by Amanda Dykes

When anthropologist Annie Sawyer is summoned to her great-uncle Robert's side in coastal Maine, Annie notices stone ruins on a nearby island that trigger both professional curiosity and long-ago memories. But with Robert in a coma, can she find answers---and mend the decades-old chasm in her family---before it's too late?

Some books are hard to define. This one doesn't fit cleanly into any genre--it's partly historical, partly contemporary; not a romance (though there is some romance in it), and I definitely wouldn't call it women's fiction--Robert's journey is truly the focus, more so than Annie's. But I would definitively say, if you're looking for a story to tug at the heartstrings, look no further. Like in real life, there's a lot of loss and hurt, but hope too. It's a beautiful tale of both building and release.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the author truly does have a beautiful writing style (even if most of this book was written in present tense, which I would always swap out for past if I could). Lyrical and lovely. And it's clear a great deal of thought has gone into it--in the metaphors of the sea and all its changeableness, of light in the darkness, of shelter in the time of storm. It's an inspiring tale.

It's also the winner of both the 2020 Christy Award for Best General Fiction and 2020 Book of the Year!

Thank you Bethany House and NetGalley for the complimentary e-book. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions are my own.

For an intro to Robert and Roy's parents, read Up From the Sea, a free prequel novella that takes place in the 1920's but touches on a mystery from the American Revolution!