RACHAEL PRESTON

When a mysterious schooner appears at the wharf of a tiny Nova Scotia fishing village, tongues start wagging. Who is the beautiful woman who dresses like a man and claims to be the captain's daughter? How was the ship damaged, and why is its cargo hold empty?

The Wind Seller is a fascinating story about exorcising personal demons. Suffocating in a marriage of convenience and tormented by memories of nursing Halifax Explosion victims, Hetty Douglas falls under the spell of the exotic sailor-woman Esmeralda. So does Noble Matheson, a quiet mechanic who blames himself for his brother's death at Vimy.

After Hetty performs an emergency amputation in the ship's cabin, it becomes clear that the ship is no ordinary sailing vessel. A compelling story of 20th-century piracy, Rachael Preston's vibrant novel explores the complex relationship between two vulnerable people and Esmeralda, the free-spirited "wind seller" who captivates them both.

In Tent of Blue, Rachael Preston alternates between the dying days of English music hall and Vancouver in 1952 to tell the stories of Yvonne, a former English music hall dancer, and her son Anton, a lonely fifteen-year old with a club foot.

Both are imprisoned, Yvonne by emotional ties to her abusive mother and, later, a brutal impresario, and Anton by his disability and his mother's misery. Tent of Blue is a story of captivity and escape, of discovering the freedom to fight back against the world and seize freedom.