JEAN is a Boston photo-journalist and mother to Billie, five, whose marriage to celebrated poet Thomas has lost its way.

Maren is a Norwegian immigrant, trapped in a childless marriage and living a claustrophobic life on the bleak Isle of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast.

More than 100 years separate the lives of these two women, but Shreve weaves their experiences together effortlessly in this haunting novel about jealous love and the certainty of fate.

Maren is the survivor of an infamous murder back in 1873 when two women - her sister Karen and sister-in-law Anethe - were brutally killed in their home while their men were at sea. The murder is a true story, but Shreve's novel casts doubt on who committed the crime and imagines another version of what happened that fateful night.

Updated: 09:06 Saturday, March 19, 2005