TOURIST TOWN

In this novel, a woman who has lost her memory becomes involved in a Massachusetts island’s people and history.

Coming to awareness while sitting on a wharfside bench on Nantucket, a woman realizes she doesn’t know where or who she is, not even her own name. Seeing a boat called Veronaand a Smith Siding and Shingling truck, she claims the name Verona Smith. She soon finds a house-cleaning job, drifting pleasantly enough through her days, especially after realizing she doesn’t want to know about her past. She gets a room with Sandy Bronson, 60, who drives a tour bus for summer visitors. Another driver is Addie McDaniel; he came to the island some 20 years ago for a temporary job and never left. An influx of the superwealthy is making cheap housing hard to find, so Addie considers leaving but is also magnetically attracted to Verona. Though wary, she accepts his company; meanwhile, she’s strangely drawn to a lighthouse and an older woman she meets there. Documents turn up in Sandy’s home relating to this woman and her long-ago tragedy, items Verona also stumbles across. As a hurricane brings wreckage to Nantucket, many secrets become unfurled and lives change. In his novel, Sheppard displays his affection for and knowledge of Nantucket, making the island a potent metaphor: Its tourist trappings, quirky quaintness, and rising gentrification contrast with the power, mystery, and destructive potential of the surrounding sea. But the island, too, holds mysteries, often signaled by a Carrollian rabbit or two and personified by Verona’s amnesia. The varied characters, described with deft three-dimensionality, have generally washed up on the island in their own way, helping Verona to blend in with the other flotsam. Her returning memory draws all the threads together in a satisfying conclusion.

An involving identity puzzle with memorable characters and a vivid setting.