Starlight

Frank Starlight is a rancher in the B.C. interior who lives a quiet life with his friend and farmhand Eugene until he meets Emmy, and her six-year-old daughter Winnie, who escaped an extremely abusive relationship and has been caught stealing groceries. Frank offers them refuge on his farm, helps the two begin to heal, and enters a romantic relationship with Winnie, but her abusive ex-boyfriend tracks her down. This engaging Canadian novel is unfinished due to the author’s untimely death. Suitable as a class, literature circle, or independent novel, it explores changing the course of one’s life, finding one’s identity, connections to the land, and finding goodness and good people in the world. Social considerations noted.