Ponder: The Edge of Lost

The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris ©2015 is the second novel I have read by this author. I loved it! I rated it five stars, the same rating I had given to the first novel I'd read by her, Sold on Monday (post dated 2/7/20).

Within the first few pages I learned that the settings would take place in two locations: Dublin, Ireland in March of 1919 and Alcatraz Island in October of 1937. As I often do in dual-timeline novels, I wonder, "How on earth are these two storylines going to merge and be related?" In the Prologue, the story opens in 1937 with an ongoing search all over the island for a 10 year old girl, the daughter of a prison guard at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The closing words of the Prologue are the words with which an inmate reassures himself

He could do this.
The plan could work.
So long as they didn't find the girl.

Leaving the reader in suspense, the story abruptly cuts to Dublin, Ireland in 1919 where an 11 year old boy earns money entertaining in a pub. Shanley Keagan lives meagerly with his gruff Uncle Will, having been left to his "care" when his mother died. Shanley has quite a talent for telling jokes, singing tunes, and performing impersonations; he aspires to be a vaudevillian. His earnings are often the only wages that provide food for him and his Uncle Will. Shanley is incredibly adept at reading people in order to interpret and anticipate their responses. This skill serves him well for his entertaining on the stage but even more so for his general relationships off the stage.

In the words of the Kristina McMorris in an online YouTube book trailer for The Edge of Lost 

Eventually Shanley gets his dream chance to set sail to America but tragedy strikes en route and in order to survive he will have to summon all his ingenuity and strength. All of this essentially laid a foundation for a story about hope, identity and second chances.

The settings are portrayed skillfully so the reader is immersed in the scrappy, scrounging streets, pubs and breadlines of Dublin. Later, the reader is crowded within the bowels of a ship for the cross-Atlantic journey. Excitement, hope, and other emotional extremes emerge at the first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty followed by the bustling, jostling, disembarking onto Ellis Island.

The multi-nationality neighborhoods of New York City are a culture shock. The harshness and conditions within Alcatraz prison are relayed in great detail. Each of these environments has been researched in order to depict them so authentically. One wonders how anybody can adjust to so many wildly varying environments.

The characters are realistically portrayed and are definitely three dimensional. I appreciated and enjoyed how their motives and impulses were revealed and I felt empathy and understanding for them. I suffered along with them and felt their pain in the bad times. The basic good in the majority of the characters and mutual support among them made for an uplifting read. This book was a page turner. I was thoroughly invested in the characters as they navigated life. I cared about both the major and minor characters.

The Edge of Lost is classified as a historical novel. I felt it had been well researched especially in order to bring all the settings to life. Kristin McMorris painted a vivd picture in my mind of the immigrants entrance and registration upon arrival at Ellis Island. I never realized that families of civilian personnel of the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary lived on the island with the notorious inmates as their neighbors. Per the Author's Note at the end of the book, Kristina McMorris tells that her inspiration for the book came from

an intriguing documentary titled Children of Alcatraz. The compilation of interviews featured people who had grown up on Alcatraz Island as children of prison staff, some even claiming to have secretly befriended notorious inmates despite rules to prevent any contact.

I highly recommend The Edge of Lost for a broad range of audiences. It earned my five star rating by the variety of the settings, the warmth of the characters, and the creativity of the plot that made me clamor for more.