Good Harbor

Anita Diamant whose rich portrayal of the biblical world of women illuminated her acclaimed international bestseller The Red Tent, now crafts a moving novel of contemporary female friendship.

Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.

Kathleen Levine, a devoted wife, mother, and children's librarian, lives in the seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. When she is diagnosed with breast cancer, she is thrown into turmoil.

Library Journal

Linda Emond's performance helps to enliven the second offering by the author of the best-selling biblical epic The Red Tent. This novel, far narrower in scope than Diamant's first, focuses on two women: Kathleen Levine, a 59-year-old children's librarian undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer, and Joyce Tabachnik, a 42-year-old journalist and romance novelist struggling to cope with a workaholic spouse and their increasingly impertinent 12-year-old daughter. Kathleen is a longtime resident of Cape Ann, MA, while Joyce and her husband have just purchased a summer home there. The two women meet one night after synagogue and immediately hit it off. While taking long walks along Good Harbor beach, the two gradually share their personal histories, developing a deep friendship that helps them cope with their domestic problems. Diamant's smooth prose, well-drawn characters, and vivid descriptions of Cape Ann help to compensate for the novel's slow-moving, minimal plot. A solid choice for large fiction collections.DBeth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

While she first caught the eye of mainstream fiction audiences with The Red Tent -- an inspired reimagining of the female experience in biblical times -- novelist Anita Diamant has been chronicling the hot topics in contemporary Jewish culture for over two decades as an acclaimed columnist.