Perdita

"Scharper shines in this surprising and engaging gothic novel... Impeccably researched and beautifully told, this is a tale that will stay with readers long after the final page is turned."―Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

Marged Brice is 134 years old.

She'd be ready to go, if it weren't for Perdita . . .

The Georgian Bay lighthouse's single eye keeps watch over storm and calm, and Marged grew up in its shadow, learning the language of the wind and the trees. There's blustery beauty there, where sea and sky incite each other to mischief… or worse…

Garth Hellyer of the Longevity Project doesn't believe Marged was a girl coming of age in the 1890s, but reading her diaries in the same wild and unpredictable location where she wrote them might be enough to cast doubt on his common sense.

Everyone knows about death.

It's life that's much more mysterious…

"Hilary Scharper deftly mines the beauty and wonder of both the human heart and nature in this haunting tale of enduring love."―Cathy Marie Buchanan, bestselling author of The Painted Girls

I am a Canadian author, living in Toronto. My husband and I have spent over a decade as assistant lighthouse-keepers and stewards at the Cabot Head Lighthouse and Bird Observatory, located on the northern Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. My major published works of fiction include a novel, Perdita (which draws on my experiences at Cabot Head), and a short story collection, Dream Dresses.  I am also an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

On Writing "Perdita"
For much of my early life I spent my summers at a family cottage on southern Georgian Bay.  At a very young age,  I began taking long walks along the Bay's rugged coastline and developed a deep and abiding love for the area. The cottage was sold when I was nineteen and--broken-hearted--I spent many years separated from my beloved Bay. Over ten years later, my husband would bring me out of exile by proposing that we become "assistant lighthouse-keepers" at the Cabot Head Lighthouse--but this time in a much wilder and colder northern Georgian Bay.

Our time at Cabot Head turned out to be  a life-changing event: we kept coming back summer after summer, staying longer each time. Eventually my husband and I became "stewards" at the nature reserve where the lighthouse is located. As my relationship with Georgian Bay deepened, I started writing  a novel. I decided that it was only through fiction that I could best express the extraordinary character of the place--both in terms of its wild natural beauty, as well as a haunting "conversation" seemingly going on between its past and present.