Carolyn McGrath

In my book, Two Faces of the Moon - A Small Island Memoir, many wild creatures share a home with me on my small island on Bobs Lake in the beautiful Frontenac area of Ontario, Canada. When I was seventeen, my dad died and left me this island and its log cabin where I often spend my summers alone. My husband says people think I'm strange when I seek solitude, but I defend myself in the book by telling stories of many women who have sought isolation in nature. Anyway, can one really be alone with a black lab and a border collie?

I'd always preferred the parent who'd taught me to shoot a gun: an alcoholic, a heavy smoker, a war veteran with a great talent for cussing. A father who clearly wished he'd had a son instead. He'd been more exciting to follow than my mother in her aprons, but in 2001, while my mother dies, I reconsider, remembering that he'd come to the island to shoot and kill the wildlife I now wish to preserve. He's long gone, but wilderness areas are under threat in other ways today. Hold on tight. This book is full of dogs, frogs, and sobs, and a lot of delight.