The author, Christine Brendle, wanted to spend one year in Maine after becoming a widow at the age of 30 with three young children. And not just to spend her vacation there, as she used to with her husband and children in the past, but to experience every season and daily life in New England. Three years after the tragedy, she made her dream come true and it turned out to be the most important experience in her life. It has made her bolder. And the images of Maine found their way into her first novel. The author was born in Austria, near Lake Constance. After reading her first book at the age of seven, she was hooked on literature. And she always wanted to go to America, especially after a neighbor of hers had gone to the U.S. because of an inheritance and returned with such precious objects as see-through high heels. It had to be a wonderful country, the child figured. After her dream - that of a happy family - was shattered, she remembered her other dreams - still or even more now: America and literature. In the years after her stay in Maine, she became an author and later a publisher. It only made sense to combine her dreams into a novel. The result is a romantic mystery story filled with adventures that tells of fear and courage, of longing and insecurities and of dreams that are greater and more powerful than any doubts.