Lisa Tuttle, Silver Bough

Silver Bough

Lisa Tuttle

Bantam, April 2006, $22.00, 325 pp.

ISBN 0553382977

On the coast of Scotland in the Highlands is the town of Appleton, a place that is connected to the mainland by one small road. When an earthquake hits, the townsfolk are cut off from the rest of civilization. Supplies will be brought in by a ferry, and mail and medical supplies will be flown in.

Three American women are in Appleton. The town librarian Kathleen, the widow Nell who has bought Orchid House, and one of her trees is a special golden apple that has not been seen for over fifty years. Visiting the town is Ashley whose grandmother was born there and left without telling anyone she was going. She refused to tell her family about that part of her life, which makes Ashley all the more eager to get in touch with her roots. Another stranger in the town is Rhoan, a man in his twenties who looks exactly like the person in a photo that is over half century old. Much of the magic that lay hidden comes out in the cut off Appleton. It seems as if the place is moving into the Otherworld where the Apple Fairest that appeared in one of Nell's trees changes the reality of our world and gives those deserving them their heart's desire.

SILVER BOUGH is all about subtle magic that is part of Appleton, a place that many believe originated in another dimension. Readers gradually became aware of the power that is in the very land itself and that of Rhoan, who is part of that magic and wants to return to his father's home. The characters are three dimensional and have a role in the upcoming events, as Lisa Tuttle has written a spell binding Scottish Brigadoon like fantasy.