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About Kate Woodworth
Kate Woodworth is the author of the novel Racing Into the Dark (EP Dutton, 1989), hailed as “A compelling exploration of mental illness” by Booklist and as an “auspicious debut” by Publishers Weekly. Her short stories have appeared in Cimarron Review, Western Humanities Review, Shenandoah and other literary journals. A retired medical writer in addition to fiction writer, she has received numerous awards and recognition for her writing, including a Pushcart Prize nomination, multiple Utah Arts Council and Dalton Pen Communication Awards, and an International Association of Business Communicators finalist recognition. She received her MFA from Boston University.
FICTION | $20
Trade Paper | 5.315” x 8.465”
ISBN: 9781960573902
Pub Date: 5/6/2025
Little Great Island: A Novel
by Kate Woodworth
Get it wherever great books are sold
Two years after the death of his wife, long-time summer resident Harry Richardson decides to sell his family home on Little Great Island in Maine. Yet everyone has a different idea of what that land might become. Mari, the feisty and outspoken woman Harry is beginning to care for, desperately wants to farm the land in a way that could sustain her own family while also serving as a working model for the island’s economic future, which is threatened by the impact of climate change on lobster fishing. Problem is, she needs every penny she can earn to fight for custody of her son.
Meanwhile, Harry’s siblings, who are co-owners of the property, are in favor of a quick sale; Frank Clatcher, the island’s primary business owner, wants Harry to sell to a developer, thereby increasing tax revenue and his own family’s fortunes; and retired statesman Tom Estabrook, the island’s “grand old man” pushes for the land to be put into a conservation easement to protect it for future generations. As the conflicting visions of Little Great Island’s future take hold, the fragile balance between the island’s native population and summer visitors fractures as everyone fights for their own view of the future. Only when tragedy strikes can the community reunite and find a way forward.
Praise for Little Great Island: A Novel
“Little Great Island is an extraordinary achievement and a pure pleasure to read.”
—Ha Jin, National Book Award winner and PEN/Faulkner Award winning author of Waiting, War Trash, The Woman Back from Moscow
“Put Anthony Doerr’s The Shell Collector, John Banville’s The Sea, and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge into a mixer and out comes Kate Woodworth’s deeply beautiful Little Great Island. With stunning prose and heart-achingly empathetic characters, Woodworth’s story of perseverance amidst change and loss is perfect for our turbulent, changing times.”
—Sophie Powell, author of The Mushroom Man