Owl Island: A Novel

by Randy Sue Coburn

Book Overview

In this accomplished and dazzlingly written new novel, Randy Sue Coburn brings to life with tremendous heart, humor, and wisdom the Pacific Northwest enclave of Owl Island and its many unforgettable... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345498712
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 1.3" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

People - read this book!

I just spent a wonderful weekend with Owl Island, by Randy Sue Coburn. People, read this book! Previous reviewers have already captured the novel's essence. Mike Leonard, in particular, details the story's through line. I would just like to add - It's rare to find a book that is both exceedingly well-written and a page turner. Owl Island is that rare exception. I hope this book receives the attention and readership it deserves.

Lifetime Lessons

I loved this fast-paced book and recommended it to my daughter because it has bountiful lessons about valuable relationships, outgrowing youthful obsessions, speaking up for oneself, taking pride in one's work, and a host of other relevant issues. All this in a terrific read that's impossible to put down. A must for women of every generation!

fantastic summer read

I was STARVING for a book that would tempt me away from whatever I was supposed to be doing to read just one more chapter. And then one more... Owl Island provided perfectly! Randy Sue Coburn brings to life a community of characters in vivid locations with compelling relationships to sort out. It's a page turner, but the suspense is all about whether the characters will catch on to the truth about their lives in time, and how our perceptions of the characters transform over the course of the novel.

A Sensual Puget Sound 'Masala'

Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn is a delicious read, steeped in local detail, pungent salt air, and packed with the quirky mix of individuals who make up our urban and rural Puget Sound Communities. Native locals will thoroughly enjoy reading this book, and arrivestes will love it for the insights and inside scope on local culture. The reader travels through the NW counter culture of the early 70s, (as seen through the eyes of Phoebe, a spunky, brainy, rebellious young woman,) to the present NW scene, with its fabulous mix of intellectuals, filmakers, musicians, artists, craftspeople, fishermen, biotech researchers, animated gamemakers, entrepreneurs of herbal teas, body piercings and tattoos! As this journey unfolds, Coburn shapes a sensitive and suspense filled study of the complexity of human relationships. Moral issues abound as well: in the biotech world, the filmaking industry, in the 'ghost net' trailings of the commercial fishing industry, in the conflict laden tribal rent increases on Owl Island, and in the secret past of her protagonist. Coburn is a strong story teller, and intellectually honest in the details which shape her characters. When Phoebe shaves her legs to please her man, Coburn's rebellious, independent heroine humerously embodies the all too human foibles of young love.

Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn

I've just gone on a suspenseful,romantic ride in the reading of Randy Sue Coburn's Owl Island. This is about the life of Phoebe Allen as told in the present and of her past life with her first lover, the charismatic Whit Traynor. He and his new wife have bought a home on Owl Island where Phoebe and her daughter have lived for the past twenty-plus years. Phoebe, now forty, and Whit, in his sixties, have not spoken since their quarrel and parting and Phoebe is apprehensive as to their inevitable meeting on the island. Ms Coburn is a masterful storyteller, the pacing, rhythm, and interweaving of the past and present is enhanced by the three dimensional secondary characters that accompany Phoebe through the story; Phoebe's daughter Laurienne and her boyfriend Cliff take us into the world of computer programers. Phoebe we see both as a lovesick teenager and, in maturity, a net-maker for fishing vessels. Phoebe's neighbor Ivan is a potter who shows us the world of fine art and how artists manage to get their work shown. Lastly, the world of movie making and script writing is what Whit does and Phoebe did with him. Even Whits' new wife Jasmine, who could easily become a two-dimensional character isn't as she takes us into the world of astrology and intuition. This book is rich in good old fashion storytelling, character,and suspense. More for women than men, through the story you will learn about many things without effort as your eyes consume the pages, your brain wonders what will come next, and your heart beats a little faster as you, or at least I, come to love these characters and hope for a happy ending.