Blackberry Winter: A NovelSarah Jio
Plume, September 2012
ISBN: 978-0452298385
In 2011, Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels--The Violets of March and The Bungalow. With Blackberry Winter--taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon--Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time.
In Blackberry Winter, Jio focuses on two women, born decades apart, who have experienced deep loss and heartache. Vera Ray trudges home to her three-year-old beloved son, Daniel, early one May morning in 1933. Vera is struggling to make ends meet in the midst of the Great Depression. Fresh from her shift at Seattle’s Olympic Hotel, she steps out the door to a late-season snowstorm, or 'blackberry winter' as it was once referred to. To her horror, Daniel is nowhere to be found.
Fast-forward to present-day Seattle and to Claire Aldridge, a reporter for the Seattle Herald. Her boss assigns Claire to cover their own blackberry winter. Like Vera, Claire is struggling. Her marriage is falling apart and she recently suffered a terrible accident and endured the death of her baby. She is unhappy to be given such a fluff piece and searches for an angle. When she discovers Daniel’s disappearance, Claire is intrigued; she has her story.
In alternating chapters Jio tells the story from the first-person perspectives of Vera and Claire. With only a few clues at her disposal, Claire undertakes Vera Ray’s cause like a crusade, stopping at nothing to unearth the past and find out the truth about what happened to Daniel. When several parallels between her life and Vera’s are discovered, Claire wonders if she, Vera, and Daniel are more closely connected than she ever considered.
Blackberry Winter is sure to be hit with book clubs. Besides Vera's and Claire's choices and the mystery of the boy, readers will want to talk about social justice, family secrets, trust, and friendship as well as the future of the major characters. Although the connection between past and present in the novel is not all that difficult to figure out, Sarah Jio is a good storyteller, and Blackberry Winter is great way to spend an afternoon.
SARAH JIO is a frequent contributor to major magazines, including Real Simple, Glamour, Cooking Light, and Redbook, and is also the health and fitness blogger for Glamour.com. She lives in Seattle with her family.
ISBN: 978-0452298385; ISBN10: 0452298385; Imprint: Plume; On Sale: 9/25/2012; Format: Paperback; Pages: 320; $15.00
