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Island Bookshelf: Seeking shelter and a new life

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Islanders will have no trouble identifying the familiar locations visited by Gail Newman’s protagonist, Kate, as she returns to Shelter Island at the beginning of this novel.

The young lawyer is seeking salve for her wounds after a professional crisis. While not of her making, it left her needing to make a fresh start. So like countless others before her, she takes refuge on Shelter Island, returning to the beautiful Dering Harbor mansion where her aunt lives, as did her late grandmother.

As Kate revisits the Island beaches and gathering spots she knows from her youth, the reader will catch on quickly to the inspiration for many of them, such as the cozy bar with a patio behind, overlooking the water. In the book, it becomes “The Seagull,” the setting for some of the encounters that give the book its plot twists and turns.

“The characters are loosely based on my wife Elise’s family,” said Ms. Newman. “Her aunt was a well-known Shelter Island artist, Louise Schaefer. Her family had a home in Montclair Colony on the Island. The cottage is ours now. We just moved from a house in the Chesapeake area to an apartment in Norfolk. Now the Shelter Island home is the house we can concentrate on. We plan to get there for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m a country girl at heart.”

The book’s title, “Sunlight in the Shadows,” refers to a painting that has special significance for three of the characters; it’s also a nod to Ms. Schaefer, who was important in Elise’s life on the Island.

Like Kate, Elise grew closer to her aunt after her grandmother’s death. Since the book is fiction, though, the family not only has the mansion in Dering Harbor, but gorgeous cars and a yacht, complete with captain. A seemingly endless supply of money fuels their lifestyle. “These characters deserve it,” laughed Ms. Newman.

While the story is essentially a love triangle involving Kate and two other women, there is a delightful Greek chorus throughout the book. Her grandmother and aunt had developed a coterie of close women friends – a funny, boozy, intrepid bunch of broads who tend to pop champagne corks to celebrate good news, or lift sad spirits, or just because it’s Tuesday.

These become Kate’s supportive circle as she navigates her life crises. One straight-shooting, take-charge type, is Patsy. “She’s my favorite,” Ms. Newman acknowledged. “I based her on Elaine Stritch.”

Although she discovered Shelter Island many years ago, Ms. Newman said she still feels excitement to get off the ferry and drive around the Island. “That’s why Shelter Island attracts so many artists and writers,” Ms. Newman said. “It brings out the magic in you.”