The Leaving Year

LOCAL AUTHOR

Ida’s father is a fisherman. He leaves each year to return months later. Ida loves her gregarious father and can’t wait for his return each year. Only this year, Ida’s father is missing, presumed dead–but neither the boat nor body was found. Holding onto the dream that he might be alive and following clues that cloaked her father in a bad light, Ida secretly leaves Seattle and heads toward Alaska. A fifteen-year-old female traveling alone to Alaska—with very little money—is frightening. Through persistence and a lot of good luck, she arrives at an isolated cannery and finds work to support her search. The cannery is a rough place filled with people with stories. Ida must trust her instincts while maneuvering through colorful workers. She falls for a Filipino worker, who lives in poorer quarters, separate from the white workers.

The story is riveting. The closer Ida gets to uncovering her father’s truth of what he does in Alaska, the worse it looks. The writing is tight and emotion-packed, forcing Ida to face tough decisions on every page. Sometimes emotionally challenging to read, it was easy to keep the pages turning on this gripping tale.