The Dancehall Years

“Joan Haggerty (Daughters of the Moon) is such a strong writer… She’ll be read with appreciation for her talent.” –John Irving “It’s exciting to find a book (The Invitation) so moving, sensual and compelling that getting to the end of it is both urgent and dreaded.” –Quill & Quire “(Daughters of the Moon)…written with intelligence and skill and a strong, vital female identity.” –Marge Piercy Both an epic adventure and an interracial drama, this spellbinding novel brims with gorgeous writing. The complex family saga begins one summer on Bowen Island and in Vancouver during the Depression and moves through Pearl Harbour, the evacuation of the Japanese and three generations into the 1980s. Gwen Killam is a child whose idyllic island summers are obliterated by the war and consequent dramatically changed behavior of the adults around her. Her swimming teacher, Takumi, disappears along with his parents. The Lower Mainland is in blackout, and Gwen’s beloved Aunt Isabelle painfully realizes she must make an unthinkable sacrifice. The island’s dance hall, a well-known destination for both soldiers on leave and summer picnickers, becomes the emotional landmark for time passing and time remembered.