Book Review: South of Superior by Ellen Airgood

Title: South of Superior
Author: Ellen Airgood
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Publication Date: June 9, 2011
Harcover: 384 pages
ISBN: 978-1594487934
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A debut novel full of heart, in which love, friendship, and charity teach a young woman to live a bigger life.

When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she isn’t prepared for how much her life will change.

Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters-one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents. It’s a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but friendship, community, and compassion run deeper. As the story hurtles along-featuring a lost child, a dashed love, a car accident, a wedding, a fire, and a romantic reunion-Gladys, Arbutus, and the rest of the town teach Madeline more about life, love, and goodwill than she’s learned in a lifetime.

A heartwarming novel, South of Superior explores the deep reward in caring for others, and shows how one who is poor in pocket can be rich in so many other ways, and how little it often takes to make someone happy.

My Review:

South of Superior by Ellen Airgood is the story of Madeline, a woman seeking understanding and meaning after experiencing a difficult early upbringing and after the recent loss of her adoptive mother, Emily. Airgood’s prose is well crafted and gives the characters real and flawed attributes, making this a believable story of life, love and loss. The descriptions of the small town, dealing with change from new arrivals, are exquisitely crafted and Airgood has truly captured the climate and surroundings of the south shore of Lake Superior in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The story gives a poignant contrast between the life Madeline has grown accustomed to in Chicago and the lives of the residents in the small town Michigan community of McAllaster, where she was born. Airgood takes readers on this journey with Madeline, who learns much about her life, discovers that as she encounters challenges along her path that she grows from each new challenge and ultimately, finds peace in her newly found life. I would recommend South of Superior to all readers and think this story would be an excellent book discussion group choice.

About the Author:

Ellen Airgood runs a diner in Grand Marais, Michigan.

To learn more about author Ellen Airgood or her book, please visit her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an arc of South of Superior by Ellen Airgood from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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