Linda Annas Ferguson What the Mirrors Knew

Every human journey is one of transition, but Anna Grace O'Neill's is anything but conventional. Living alone in a bungalow on the riverbank of Charleston, South Carolina, and disenchanted by a less-than-satisfying life, she discovers once-buried revelations in a journal left by her deceased and beloved grandmother, Aine. The mystery of why her grandfather, Angus, died before he could accompany Aine to America from Ireland after their teenage marriage years ago is one that she is driven to resolve. On her quest, she is called, as if by their spirits themselves, to embark on nothing less than a pilgrimage to the home of their youth. Their native land is part of the equally ethereal and earthborn Irish "Wild West" coast, where myths are a national heritage. Encountering surreal experiences, she is often unsure if she has been "taken astray" to another dimension by the invisible forces maintained in Celtic folklore, where alchemy and the ephemeral aren't foreign concepts. She is drawn off course when her path crosses that of an unexpected admirer, Kevin, a quantum physicist turned roving magician, yielding life-shifting events. Her formidable odyssey, as much within as external, creates a conflict in how she maneuvers the rearrangement of her once-mundane world. Enriched with literary style and sensibilities, the story is interwoven with philosophy, magical realism, spirituality, romance, and alternate realities. Anna Grace's struggles are the core incentive that keeps us rooting for her and leaves the reader's hand resting on the back cover, deliberating well past the last line.