Teen renews passion for art, bond with mom in YA debut – The Sudbury Star

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A Sudbury writer will launch her new young adult novel this weekend at the Northern Water Sports Centre.

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The Stones of Burren Bay, published by Latitude 46, tells the story of a teenaged girl who navigates grief and family challenges through the healing power of art and the guidance of a Celtic spirit she encounters at an old lighthouse on Manitoulin Island.

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Author Emily De Angelis has previously published poetry and short stories, but this is her first YA novel.

The writer was born in Sudbury and taught special needs students for 30 years. She now lives in Woodstock, while spending her summers on Manitoulin.

In her novel, 15-year-old protagonist Norie loses her father to a car accident, while her distant mother is injured. She also loses her prized possession — an antique artist’s box that traveled from Ireland with her great-great-grandmother.

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“As Norie grapples with her self-identity, obscured by grief and anger, she and her physically and emotionally fragile mother are forced to relocate,” states a synopsis. “With no other relatives to rely on, they call on the kindness of her mother’s oldest friend Dahlia and her daughter Wil, who run the Jolly Pot Tearoom and Burren Bay Lighthouse Museum on Manitoulin Island.”

Dahlia introduces Norie to ancient Irish Celtic spiritualism and “opens the thin veil between the past and present, where Norie encounters the echo of a centuries-old spirit, Oonagh,” according to the synopsis. Through Oonagh’s own story, the girl “comes to terms with her father’s betrayal and death and rediscovers her passion for art.” As her mother’s emotional wounds reach a crisis, Norie “realizes they must face their guilt and grief together in order to heal and become reunited as mother and daughter.”

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Claire Ross Dunn, author of At Last Count, describes the book as a “wonderful, compelling, emotional read.”

The Stones of Burren Bay “harkens back to those golden, endless summers when anything was possible: solving a mystery, seeing a ghost, rediscovering yourself,” she writes. “Norie gets to do it all, and transport the reader in the process … Find a hammock immediately.”

De Angelis comes from a long line of visual artists, musicians, and storytellers. A graduate of the Humber School of Writing, her western and Japanese-style poems, as well as short stories, have been published in various anthologies.

The book launch will take place this Sunday, from 2-4 p.m., at the Northern Water Sports Centre.

Copies of the novel can be purchased through Latitude 46 by visiting tinyurl.com/3xk6sksc.

sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca

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