Sometimes an Island
by Ellen Meeropol
Sea Crow Press
Pub date: March 6 2026
Beyond the jagged, beautiful coast of Penobscot Bay, scattered across the water, like stones thrown from a giant hand, lie hundreds of islands, some vacant, some settled by the sturdy folks of Down East Maine. One island is the home of the descendants of refugees, three cousins who fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, to find safety in a new country. It is here that Ellen Meeropol sets her sixth book Sometimes an Island. Told in the voices of both present inhabitants and past ones interwoven, comes the love for the rock they call home, the relationships that both bind and separate, and a growing worry regarding the changes happening to the earth’s climate. Instead of being forced by violence to flee their homes to start anew like their ancestors had, the crisis of global warming impels some to leave the island in search of safety on the mainland, living off the grid, preparing for the worst. Some remain on the island, hoping for safety on their home for decades. Ms Meeropol has written a thoughtful, beautiful book, that crosses between generations as well as genres, to present different aspects of a coming disaster. Sometimes an Island delivers the unfolding preparation for a cataclysm, but also offers the deep, almost magical connections that can exist between people, even through time.
