A stranger informs Alison Earley of the untimely death of her biological father, whom she has known for only six years. She embarks on what she intends to be a brief trip back to Scotland for his funeral. Instead, she finds herself on a journey that puts adoption, sexuality, and identity on a collision course as Alison finds herself caught between the life and family she has so carefully constructed on one continent and the family from which she was taken on another.
Spurned by her father’s family, reunited with her biological mother, and reconnected with a long-lost love, Alison finds herself trying to shepherd her youngest child towards college while questioning everything she thought she knew about herself.
After uncovering a series of unsent letters written to her from the grandmother she never knew— resurrecting the long-buried stories of generations of powerful female ancestors as well as of her own birth—Alison realizes that she must find the courage to face the truth and reveal the secrets of her past, no matter the cost.
When the Ocean Flies explores the pain of separation and abuse, and the power of love to heal even over great generational and geographical distance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather G. Marshall is adoptee, author, speaker, teacher, coach, and traveler. Her short fiction has been published in a variety of journals, including Black Middens: New Writing Scotland, and Quarried, an anthology of the best of three decades of Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel. Her first novel, The Thorn Tree, released in 2014 (MP Publishing). Her TED talk, “Letting Go of Expectations,” centers around her adoption and reunion. Originally from Scotland, Heather is currently based in Massachusetts. You can find out more about her at heathergmarshall.com.
