Fisherman's Wife

It was the beginning of the Great Depression. A successful writer gives up her career with one of the legendary reporters of the 20th century to be with her husband on an island at the Jersey Shore, trading her exciting urban lifestyle for a drafty house on a lonely beach. Their funds quickly dwindle, and she finds herself pregnant in a harsh environment while her husband struggles to make ends meet as a commercial fisherman. But what they ultimately gain is far greater than the comforts they sacrificed: an appreciation of hard-won values, respect for the forces of nature, and a resurgence of true love.

In this poignant story, the failing economy of 1931 forces a successful young couple to give up their cosmopolitan New York City lifestyle for a simple but rewarding life at the edge of the sea.

For Jo, the "fisherman's wife," the relocation turns out to be more than she bargained for. She had been a globe-trotting writer and researcher for one of the legendary reporters of the 20th Century. Soon pregnant, she and her husband struggle to make a home and live frugally as he tries to meet expenses as a commercial fisherman.

Yet, they find true happiness. First published during the Great Depression, this timeless story reveals how sacrifice, hardship and trust can create a common bond of love; how there is a deep sense of fulfillment in working together and discovering that, as the author writes "...something much finer was welded between us than we found in the first prosperous days of our marriage."

Beautifully illustrated with traditional woodcuts by contemporary printmaker Julie Goldstein, the story includes an epilogue by New Jersey shore history author Margaret Thomas Buchholz. (A 2009 finalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards.)