On an evening in early October 1967, in the tiny fishing village of Perry’s Harbour in Nova Scotia, an unidentified flying object crash lands in the harbour, sending local fisherman scrambling for survivors in the assumed plane crash. This invasion propagates another, as media and military interest concentrates on the fishing village. Young Pocket Snow has a lot to contend with even before the unidentified flying object crashes in the harbour. Just like the vortex created by the UFO incident, another one is happening in the Snow household, as Pocket’s mother approaches death and his father tries to cope. At Crosbey’s General Store, where Shirley presides as information clearing-house and coffee-pourer, the locals gather to discuss how the Coast Guard, RCMP, Canadian Navy and U.S. Military—a knot of vessels squatting mysteriously out on the Sound—aren’t talking to the people of Perry’s Harbour. Meanwhile, the Snow family holds its breath, and yet, with the arrival of strangers, the spark of possibility briefly alights them with hope—even Merle Snow. In a subtle way, the incident touches and transforms everyone in Perry’s Harbour.

Anne DeGrace is the author of four novels: Treading Water, Wind Tails, Sounding Line, and Flying with Amelia. Her resume includes stints as an illustrator, journalist, bookseller, publisher, and librarian. DeGrace lives with her partner, three dogs, and a dozen chickens near Nelson, British Columbia, where she writes in a hillside studio with a view of a lake, mountains, and the occasional elk.

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