by Marita Fairfield
By 2005, internet access had reached the coastal Maine communities where Jamie Fielding grew up, enabling her to telecommute from Maine after two decades away building her career. When she discovers the waterfront home on Westport Island where her best friend grew up is for sale, Jamie purchases the property and comes home.
Soon after Jamie returns to Maine, she’s told the Dodge family legend of Jeremy Squam—a Native American that was run off a cliff by early settlers when it was discovered he was the true father of a Dodge family baby. According to the legend, Jeremy Squam did not die that day, but instead became a merman that would haunt Dodge Point for one summer every three years.
For a while it seems like Jamie is able to have it all—living in Maine, thriving in her professional career, and the relationship of her dreams. But one fateful night, that dream becomes a nightmare and she discovers the legend is real—or at least the merman who rescues her from the shores of her new home is very real. In the month that follows, she spends time with Adam, the name he goes by when he becomes a man. But by the end of the summer, he becomes a merman once again and then leaves, not to return for three years.
Just before he leaves, Jamie discovers she is pregnant with his child. While she knows she is more than capable of raising this child on her own, as she awaits his return Jamie discovers there is more to the legend of the merman than she has been told.
This debut novel explores the challenges of coming home and finding oneself against the backdrop of generational changes in Coastal Maine.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marita Fairfield grew up in Wiscasset, Maine. Like many of her generation, she left to pursue college and career aspirations. She came back to Maine once she was able to telecommute from a waterfront home on Westport Island. She’s remained in the area ever since. As a solo parent, she told her child and anyone who cared to ask that the father was a merman and the story grew from there.
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