Song of the Wooden Sparrow

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>1894-Devastated by the deaths of her husband and son during an epidemic in Ghana Dr. Leah Maays returns home to Edith's Bay Maine. Hoping to continue her medical career she discovers the community is hostile to female doctors.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Enter Duncan Shay. After years of being ostracized for murdering a man while robbing a bank he's developed a persona that can freeze a glass of water.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Unaware Duncan is shunned Leah tends to a gouge on his hand as if he's just another regular fellow making Duncan realize the walls he's built to keep others out are too weak to contain his yearnings to belong.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Though drawn to him Leah resists Duncan's friendship because she can't establish a practice if she too is ostracized. To have Leah in his life Duncan must convince everyone including himself that he's more than the worst thing he's ever done in his life.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The novel explores the machinations of a small rural community in Maine at the turn of the century just as women were beginning to step out of traditional roles.</span></p>