HIGHWAY TO VALOUR

A novel of Newfoundland, whose sombre scenery, ""accepting"" people provide complementary coloring for the awaking into life of Mageila, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, who has the gift of healing, who is shocked into lassitude and horror with the violent death of her parents and sisters in a tidal wave. Her practical grandfather goads her into some vitality, then Trevor and love for him continues the treatment but it is while being a companion for a little girl, whose drug addict father has spoiled all family life, that Mageila really attains maturity, so that, learning that Trevor's wife will not divorce him and that he is on his way to war, she can choose a future best suited to her needs. Romance with grim overtones, courage of a mystical sort, handled in an intuitive manner puts this in the serious reading class.