BOOK REVIEW: A love letter to the ‘odyssey of an ordinary life’
May 27, 2026
By Michelle Beckwith
“The Gulf of Lions,” by Caitlin Shetterly.
My bold prediction is that I have just read what will become my Best Book of 2026.
The author foreword stopped me in my tracks - Six months after turning in this novel to her editor, Shetterly received the exact diagnosis as her main character, connecting them forever. This follow up to Pete and Alice in Maine stands triumphantly on its own as a love letter to the fragile filament of connection we have to our loved ones and to ourselves.
Main character Alice has concluded her treatment for breast cancer in the shadow of her husband’s infidelity and impulsively accepts a job to write an article for a travel magazine. She packs up her daughters for a camping adventure in the French countryside, to explore, to escape. Her new challenge: how to redefine her roles as wife, mother and woman while living under the cloud of a cancer recurrence. Iris, 8, and Sophie, 14, create their own drama as the relationship with their parents and with each other evolves in completely relatable ways.
“When I named my novel ‘The Gulf of Lions’ it was for both a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea in Southern France... and, also, for the lions that can lurk in the odyssey of an ordinary life.”
The evocative writing about the landscape, the food and the sensations of Southern France as Alice and her daughters reconnect and detach, completely enveloped me. Told from multiple points of view, each character in the novel is desperate for a new start while being tethered to the past and how they navigate the journey of healing and of hope is the book’s crowning achievement.
Shetterly, who grew up in Surry and attended George Stevens Academy, artfully and subtly ties the narrative back to Maine expanding the plot, bringing it to life, which will especially resonate with local readers. She returns to the peninsula this Thursday, May 28, at 6 p.m. to present an author talk at The Blue Hill Library. I’ll see you there!
—Michelle Beckwith reviews books of various genres and especially enjoys titles set in Maine. Her reviews from the past five years are posted on her Instagram page @bookshelfbybeckwith. She and her husband Jeff live in Blue Hill.
