Princess of Tides
Princess of Tides
PURSUITS
MEG DONOHUE ’00
THE HEROINE OF DONOHUE’S COMPELLING NOVEL, YOU Me, and the Sea, is named Merrow, which means “mermaid” in Irish-English. In Celtic folklore, these seafaring seducers enchant men—often to their doom. “I knew how far I was willing to go for love, how capable I was of blindly clinging to it,” she says.
Donohue’s tale of tortured love echoes Wuthering Heights, but with a twist. Emily Bronte’s classic has always been one of Donohue’s favorites, but she says the fates of star-crossed Heathcliff and Catherine leave her “vividly” disappointed. “I wanted to write the ending I wish I could have read and that I think a lot of readers wanted to see,” Donohue tells DAM.
In her neo-Gothic retelling, a manor on the moors becomes a farm on Horseshoe Cliff on northern California’s foggy coast in the 1990s. Merrow’s mother dies mysteriously, and after suffering Dickensian miseries, she finds true love—or at least thinks she has. You, Me, and the Sea’s tightly woven plot races tsunami-like through her characters’ lives with suspense and surprises.
With her fifth novel in seven years, Donohue has mastered the art of both tickling—and tugging—readers’ heartstrings. The author, who lives in San Francisco with her husband and three daughters, has a keen grasp on how people, especially women, relate to each other. “I’m very fond of being a writer that women embrace,” she says. Yet she is uneasy with being labeled a writer of women’s fiction. “That’s what others classify my work as being. There’s no men’s fiction. When you write stories about women’s lives there’s this implication they’re only going to be read by women,” she says. “I want to write fiction that is uplifting and entertaining, that brings readers joy and emotions, both happy and sad.” Is You, Me, and the Sea a “beach book,” a label some authors might shy from? “That is a complete compliment,” Donohue replies.
You, Me, and the Sea WILLIAM MORROW 368 PP. $27
George M. Spencer
For an excerpt from You, Me, and the Sea, visit our website.
