Maria Rihte

Village of Sycamore: a Novel Maria Rihte

When thirty-two-year-old woodworker and designer Jacqueline Callaghan arrives in the small village of Sycamore on a windswept island, she has just sold her apartment in the city, lost her job, left her boyfriend, and buried her grandmother. She?s ready to begin a new life in her grandmother?s old cottage in this picturesque village of lush gardens and wild waterfront. Jackie opens her own studio and gallery and finds that life is perfect ? except for the bills. In a desperate attempt to save the life she now loves, Jackie organizes a studio tour, rallying together the island?s many artists and crafts people, in hopes of bringing more visitors to the island. The idea is popular, but Jackie is almost defeated. How to persuade these fiercely independent artists to work together without disrupting the delicate balance of their daily lives? The whole village falls into chaos as artistic personalities clash and long-hidden skeletons come out of the closet. Secret trysts, nude portraits, love and inconsolable broken hearts, mistaken death, and resurrection slowly unravel Jackie?s carefully crafted tour plans.