On Mystic Lake: A Novel - Softcover

Hannah, Kristin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345471172 ISBN 13: 9780345471178

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2004

A poignant and tender story of love, loss, passion, and the fragile threads that bind families together from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale

“A beautifully simple, deeply compassionate story.”—Diana Gabaldon

Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was—the woman she is now desperate to become again.

In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make. . . .

Praise for On Mystic Lake

“Marvelous . . . a touching love story . . . You know a book is a winner when you devour it in one evening and hope there’s a sequel. . . . This page-turner has enough twists and turns to keep the reader up until the wee hours of the morning.”—USA Today

“Superb . . . I’ll heartily recommend On Mystic Lake to any woman . . . who demands that a story leave her in a satisfied glow.”—The Washington Post Book World

“A luminescent story . . . Kristin Hannah touches the deepest, most tender corners of our hearts.”—Tami Hoag

“Excellent . . . On Mystic Lake is an emotional experience you won’t soon forget.”—Rocky Mountain News
 
“Propels readers forward to the final chapter.”—The Seattle Times

Review:

What do you do when everything you hold dear, everything you believe yourself to be, proves not to be true? Like Scarlett O'Hara, you go home, if not to Tara, then to the last place that you felt like you. Award-winning author Kristin Hannah makes her hardcover debut by taking readers to just such a place in On Mystic Lake. As her only child leaves to study abroad and her husband admits his love for a younger woman, Annie Colwater feels invisible. Having devoted herself to being the best wife and mother she could be for the last 20 years, Annie no longer knows who she is. She heads home to her father and to Mystic, Washington--where she grew up, where the dreams she barely remembers first blossomed, and where her first love, Nick Delacroix, still lives. Back in Mystic, Annie receives a healthy dose of perspective: Nick's wife has recently committed suicide, leaving Nick to find solace in the bottom of a Scotch bottle while his 6-year-old daughter, Izzie--who hasn't spoken since her mother's death--is doing her best to "disappear" just like Mommy. Annie volunteers to care for Izzie, since Nick cannot understand what his grieving daughter needs. And in the process, Annie recovers herself, the woman she thought gone forever, while Nick realizes that his future lies with Annie and Izzie. Just when the future starts to look bright for the three, Annie is faced with a devastating choice between the life she thought had left her behind, and a new beginning with Nick and Izzie, who helped to unearth her forgotten dreams. Kristin Hannah has produced a treasure of a book, one that will make you cry and will strike a chord in anyone who has ever had to pick up the pieces and start over. --Alison Trinkle

From the Back Cover:

"A luminescent story . . . Hannah touches the deepest, most tender corners of our hearts."
--TAMI HOAG
   Author of A Thin Dark Line

"SUPERB . . . I'LL HEARTILY RECOMMEND ON MYSTIC LAKE TO ANY WOMAN . . . WHO DEMANDS THAT A STORY LEAVE HER IN A SATISFIED GLOW."
--The Washington Post Book World

"EXCELLENT . . . ON MYSTIC LAKE IS AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE YOU WON'T SOON FORGET."
--Rocky Mountain News

"ON MYSTIC LAKE is a big, beautiful story of love, family, and second chances. Kristin Hannah has written the Must-Read Book of the Year!"
--SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS
   Author of Dream a Little Dream
From the Paperback edition.