The Summer of the Train

Welcome to Spring Cove, a picturesque village with New England charm, rambling farms, sheds, front porches, gardens, clothes lines, flocks of chickens, and party lines. This story transports the reader to the MacWilliams farm and allows the reader to watch as the family lives through most of the twentieth century in a small rural village along the southern mid-coast of Maine.

This is a journey to a time and place when your grandmother's kitchen smelled of apple pie, people swam in rivers, communities celebrated the 4th of July at the Village Green, and relatives returned home for the holidays.

Ann Purdy gives us a glimpse back to what was once so familiar. She portrays her characters and the period so that they seem like the people you once knew - your family, your neighbors, and your friends. There is the delivery man who always advises he takes his coffee black, though everyone knows it, and the switchboard operator that listens in on calls and seems compelled
to share the details. Every small town had characters and was better for it.

Generations of women in the family sit in the same window seat and gaze out upon the MacWilliams farm thinking about their reality, what might be, and how to proceed forward. There is no wallowing in their circumstances. They exhibit a manner of living that is genuine, kind and yet very strong.

"...memories, deep and true, are woven into the fabric of our lives." Ann Purdy's book takes us to see the threads of this family and it reminds us of our own fabric, too.
-Ruth Dunbar, Director, Four Pines Book Club