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The Year of Fog (Bantam Discovery) by…
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The Year of Fog (Bantam Discovery) (edition 2008)

by Michelle Richmond

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1,3578413,717 (3.65)50
Photographer Abby Mason's life is changed forever by the disappearance of the young girl with whom she had been walking on a cold and foggy beach, and her desperate search for the truth behind the child's vanishing.
Member:DH515
Title:The Year of Fog (Bantam Discovery)
Authors:Michelle Richmond
Info:Bantam Discovery (2008), Paperback, 416 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
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The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

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Showing 1-5 of 82 (next | show all)
The Year Of Fog tells the story of a kidnapped child. A story that's been told a number of times. And I've read my share of them. But there are a number of things which sets this one apart. First of all, it's told from the point of view of the child's stepmother. A boldly different point perspective. It also includes many beautifully written passages on the use of photography as a means, not only to freeze a moment in time, but to imprint that time into our memories. And for me, it's these brilliant dissertations into so many different aspects of our memories, and the ways in which these memories shape, effect, and in some cases, define our lives that makes this novel special. ( )
  kevinkevbo | Jul 14, 2023 |
A gripping tale that held my interest and kept a knot in the pit of my stomach. I hope I have just found a new author to love. ( )
  mattorsara | Aug 11, 2022 |
Evocative novel about Abby, a woman who hopes to one day be wife to Jake, a high school teacher, and stepmother to Emma, his six-year-old daughter. Only Abby glances away just long enough to lose Emma on a fog-filled San Franciscan beach.

The majority of the novel is an interplay between the science of memory, the search for Emma, and the deteriorating relationship between Jake and Abby.

Although exceptionally well-written and carefully balanced between science, memory, and present-tense plot, I experienced moments of complete listlessness in reading, which could have easily been resolved if the author had chosen to nix some of the factual and scientific renderings and the repetitive emotional obsessiveness the narrator chose to indulge in and get back to the plot. I guess I'm spoiled by commercial fiction with its fast-paced, emotionally streamlined narrative. This is the only fault with the book, and it is why I give it only 4 instead of 5 stars. ( )
  AngelaLam | Feb 8, 2022 |
Great writing, engaging story. ( )
  cubsfan3410 | Sep 1, 2018 |
When I go on vacation, I like to read books that place in that locale. This year my destination was San Francisco, and I happened upon this wonderful novel about memory, obsession, and one woman’s search for a missing child.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear about a child who has gone missing without a single trace, I shake my head, say a quick prayer, and tell others that I cannot imagine what the parents are feeling. Michelle Richmond did an amazing job in keep the character in one place yet moving forward at the same time, all the while letting readers be voyeurs of this horrific happening.
Freelance photographer Abby Mason is the step-mother-to-be to six-year-old Emma. Abby loves her new role as fiancée and as friend and mom. Abby and Emma go to the foggy Ocean Beach almost every day. Today it may be summer, but it’s almost always cold and foggy at this remote beach. Emma twists her tiny hand from Abby’s and runs ahead. Momentarily distracted by a dead seal pup, when Abby turns back to Emma, she has disappeared in the fog. Literally, she is gone.
Readers will get a behind-the-scenes look at a search for a missing child. The police and volunteers who comb the area, the flyers, the reward posting, the sleepless nights, the inability to choke down more than a few morsels of food, the fear that grips Abby and Jake, Emma’s father.
Police at first believe she has drowned. Then they look at the Jake and Abby as possible suspects. Jake goes on national television to plead with anyone who may have seen Emma, especially her mother, Lisbeth, who abandoned Jake and Emma three years earlier.
As the minutes turn to hours to days to weeks to months, the police give up as new, more solvable cases capture their attention. After months, Jake wants to hold a memorial service and move on with life. But not Abby, she refuses to believe that Emma cannot be found.
Readers go with her on her travels through the Bay area, shoving flyers into strangers’ hands, practically begging for help. Readers go with Abby on her quest to locate any memory of their surroundings on the beach that day.
I don’t often have a need to peek at a novel’s ending, but the tension is so great that it was all I could do not to peep at the ending.
I give The Year of Fog 6 out of 5 stars. ( )
  juliecracchiolo | Mar 12, 2018 |
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Epigraph
"Viewfinder cameras have a simple plastic glass viewer and no adjustable focusing system. The viewer is located just above or to the side of the lens, and indicates approximately what the final photograph will look like (though some parallax problems-the difference between what the eye sees through the viewer and what is actually recorded through the lens-are apparent in the processed negative or print)." -Henry Horenstein, Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual

"The light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest light of all..." -Eugene Ionescom Present Past, Past Present
Dedication
for Bonnie and John
First words
Here is the truth, that is what I know: we were walking on Ocean Beach, hand in hand.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Photographer Abby Mason's life is changed forever by the disappearance of the young girl with whom she had been walking on a cold and foggy beach, and her desperate search for the truth behind the child's vanishing.

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Book description
Here is the truth, this is what I know: I was walking on the beach with Emma. It was cold and very foggy. She let go of my hand. I stopped to photograph a baby seal, then glanced up toward the Great Highway. When I looked back, Emma was gone.

From this moment unfolds the spellbinding story of Abby Mason — photographer, fiancee, soon-to-be-stepmother — and the consequences of her greatest error. A riveting drama of how life can change in an instant, of a family torn apart by the search for the truth behind a child's disappearance, and of one woman's unwavering faith in the power of love. The Year of Fog is a profoundly original glimpse into the mysterious and wondrous workings of the human heart, all made startlingly fresh through novelist Richmond's incandescent sensitivity and extraordinary insight.
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Average: (3.65)
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