Fifteen years ago, Willow Alexander was jilted at the altar by her high school sweetheart, Graham Currie, who left their wedding rehearsal the night before knowing he would not be returning the next day.&nbsp; Confused and devastated, Willow remains in the small town of Glenmor in Cape Breton, caring for her ailing parents and nursing her heartache. What no one knows is that Willow lost more than her marriage on that shocking day, which is why she remains on her family's expansive property, in the shadow of Christy's Mountain, unable to let go of the secret she has kept hidden for more than a decade.&nbsp; Soon after her fortieth birthday, Willow finds out that Graham is returning to town, without his new wife, after years of working as a doctor in New York City. As Willow grapples with her emotions, wondering how she will deal with Graham's arrival, tragedy strikes again: her dear friend, Kathleen, and her husband, local doctor James Millhouse, are found dead. Willow was the last one to see the couple on the night they died and fears that she may have accidently had a hand in their deaths.&nbsp; Fearing both Graham's return and her own imminent arrest, Willow holes up in her family home, reflecting on her past and bracing for her uncertain future. The Girl He Left Behind is a moving story about how confronting life's greatest uncertainties is often the only way forward.&nbsp;

The Girl He Left Behind: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

MacNeil, Beatrice

Genre Fiction

HarperAvenue

Girl He Left behind: A Novel

United States

Harper-perennial

FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR BEATRICE MACNEIL COMES THE ACCLAIMED STORY OF THOSE WHO WERE SENT INTO BATTLE— AND THOSE WHO WERE LEFT AT HOME. In 1941, three young men enlist in the legendary Cape Breton Highlanders and sail off to war, leaving their families to wait and wonder at home in Beinn Barra, Nova Scotia. Fisherman Hector MacDonald, gifted musician Benny Doucet, and hopeful medical student Calum MacPherson are all eager for the excitement of life in the famous regiment, but on the homefront, they leave behind only the anxiety and pain of their loved ones. Heart-wrenchingly told in smart, lyrical, evocative prose, Where White Horses Gallop is a novel that strikes at the heart of war in its glory, and in all its stark legacy.

Where White Horses Gallop

Breakwater Books Ltd.

At age ninety-two, Ivadoile Spears is in the grip of early dementia. Alone except for a cat named Rose and an old cedar box filled with photographs, Ivadoile is stubbornly set on living out her remaining years in the now-vacant Tides Inn on Cape Breton Island. The only child of cold and withdrawn parents and widowed by the age of twenty-eight, a younger Ivadoile turned the Tides Inn into a retreat for the broken-spirited. But she had not been prepared for Ambrose Kane – a southerner who entered, bringing a cold wind in his dirty shirt.

Keeper of Tides

Contemporary

Shunned as an outsider and mistreated due to an undiagnosed learning disability, the young and imaginative Mari-Jen Delene retreats into silence. Around her, the fictional community of Ste. Noire, Cape Breton, hosts a vividly drawn cast of characters: the uncompromising and bitter Mother Superior; the dangerous Uncle Jule; the kind-hearted holocaust survivor Daniel Peter; and Mari-Jen’s rebellious and powerfully intelligent brothers, who sleep next to a map of the world they yearn to explore. Elegantly written and profoundly touching, Butterflies Dance in the Dark stands as a testament to the vibrant resiliency of youth and the enduring powers of the imagination.

Butterflies Dance in the Dark

Literary

In the fictional village of Rocky Point, Cape Breton, just after WWII, the Briar family keeps a secret. Locked in his room, Joseph Briar, a child with visible and non-visible disabilities, is hidden from the community. And what Alfie Johns discovers through Joseph’s window will lead him to love and a future framing beauty in photographs. Harkening back to Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, Beatrice MacNeil reveals the destructive power of shame and the redemptive power of art.

The Geranium Window

Destined for limbo because of her illegitimacy, and labeled retarded” because of a learning disability, young Mari-Jen Delene retreats into silence. Around her revolves a vividly drawn cast of characters: her mother Adele; Misha, a Polish Jew; the willful, bitter Mother Superior; and her powerfully intelligent twin brothers, who sleep beside a map of the world they long to explore. Brilliantly imagined and buoyed by the clear-eyed perceptions of youth, it is an eloquent and profound story from a gifted writer.

Key Porter Books

It is 1939. England has declared war on Germany. Canada will march beside her. And the lives of five young friends living in the ruggedly beautiful northern highlands of Cape Breton will be changed forever. Three of them enlist with the Cape Breton Highlanders and sail off to war in November 1941: musician Benny Doucet; would-be doctor Calum MacPherson; and fisherman Hector MacDonald. But Calum's brother Hamish, handicapped and unable to serve, remains at home in Beinn Barra. And Alex MacGreggor, fisherman and poet, refuses to enlist. Alex is in love with the postmistress with the thick ankles, and when the conscription men come for him he hides in a false wall in his mother's attic. Where White Horses Gallop is a haunting, beautifully written tale of friendship and the trauma of war where emotional bullets riddle the spirit long after the guns in the Arielli Valley and the Delfzijl trenches have grown silent.

British & Irish

A mischievous blend of Scottish and Acadian, these stories blossom, or explode softly, in your life.

The moonlight skater: 9 Cape Breton stories & The dream

Breton Books

Claudia Gahlinger, Lynn Coady, Joan Clark, Beatrice MacNeil, Susan Zettell, Sherry D. Ramsey, Jean McNeil, Kim Williamson, Tessie Gillis, Ann-Marie MacDonald, D. C. Troicuk, Tricia Fish, Erin McNamara, Teresa O’Brien, Ellen Frith and Carol Bruneau. Starting with Tessie Gillis, women have been writing the non-traditional story of Cape Breton Island; the deeper, sometimes darker, side. They offer here a rich, rare view of being young, of being old, even of being a man. The stories in The Day the Men Went to Town are about fisherwomen and aliens from space, the poignancy of family life, and tragedy in the coal mines. They are about several approaches to love. They are entertaining, thought-provoking, and introduce us to the new world of Canadian writing. Some of these writers have achieved fame, and several will be discoveries to you.

The Day the Men Went to Town: 16 Stories by Women From Cape Breton

Bruneau, Carol

McNEIL, Jean

Zettell, Susan

Coady, Lynn

O'Brien, Teresa

MacDonald, Ann-Martie

Gahlinger, Cladia

Gillis, Tessie

Fish, Tricia

Frith, Ellen

MacNamara, Erin

Troicuk, D.C.

Williamson, Kim

Ramsey, Sherry D.

Clark, Joan.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MacNeil, Beatrice. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by MacNeil, Beatrice