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March 3, 2026
PRAISE FOR SOMETIMES AN ISLAND:
"Told in a cascade of Greek chorus- like voices, Sometimes an Island is a chilling story of the world we live in and our precarious place in it.” — Ann Hood, author of The Stolen Child
"In Sometimes an Island, Ellen Meeropol weaves a miraculous story of love, loss, and resistance—braiding past and future in
a haunting portrait of a family's multi-generational struggle on their coastal Maine island. As the climate crisis ravages the world in 2029, this saga of intentional communities transforms into an urgent warning and a radiant wonder. With precision and emotional depth, Meeropol illustrates how our connections to each other become our most vital resource against encroaching devastation. A masterfully crafted story that celebrates the “fierce, fragile resilience of the human spirit when everything familiar threatens to wash away.” — Randy Susan Meyers, international bestselling author of The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone
"Gorgeously written, this novel-in-stories brings the world—past and future—so alive you can taste, feel and see it. Sometimes an Island asks the question: can our stories save us? A family that once fled pogroms finds the answer as they grapple with impending disaster. Highly. recommended.” — Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Child Finder
"With acute vision and deep soulfulness, Ellen Meeropol imagines the fate of our fragile planet. In this powerful, prismatic novel-in-stories, she weaves a layered portrait of humanity's capacity for love—and for destruction.” — Debra Jo Immergut, author of You Again
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ABOUT SOMETIMES AN ISLAND:
After Cossacks burn their home, ten-year-old Deborah and her father flee their shtetl to a remote island off the coast of Maine, seeking refuge and a new beginning.
More than a century later, their descendants are uprooted once again—this time by rising seas and a collapsing world.
Told through a constellation of interwoven voices and timelines, Sometimes an Island traces the echoes of one family's migrations.
From the salt-stung shores of Penobscot Bay to the forests of inland Maine, a new community emerges: off-grid, interdependent, and bound by the fragile threads of memory.
Family from Brooklyn, refugees from a fractured Massachusetts co-op, and islanders with deep local roots come together to imagine what survival—and belonging—mean in a world transformed by change.
Both gritty and lyrical, grounded and magical, Sometimes an Island asks a question that resonates across its pages: How do we navigate an uncertain future armed only with our memories, our hopes, and the bonds that hold us together?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Sometimes an Island, The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest, and guest editor for the anthology Dreams for a Broken World. Essay and story publications include Ms. Magazine, Lilith, The Writer Magazine, The Boston Globe, Solstice Magazine, Guernica, LitHub, and Mom Egg Review.
Her work has been a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great Group Reads. Ellen lives in western Massachusetts, where she is a founding mother of Straw Dog Writers Guild.
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