Between Tides

By: Angel Khoury

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

A captivating historical novel set on Cape Cod and North Carolina's Outer Banks, perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping.

Cape Cod, 1890s: Between tides, a man deserts his wife and his post as keeper of the Chatham Beach Lifesaving Station to start a new family far to the south, at Cape Hatteras.

The 1940s: His daughter, en route to serve in World War II with the Red Cross, travels to Cape Cod where she meets his first wife, Blythe, reanimating a life she had long buried: memories of her courtship, her bitter losses, and her husband's slow-motion vanishing.

Set on two wild seascapes, Cape Cod and North Carolina's Outer Banks, Between Tides is a lyrical novel for fans of Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, and Marilynne Robinson - a story of two women stitching together a family ripped at the seams and discovering that even through absence, love's presence is everlasting.

©2021 Angel Khoury (P)2021 Tantor

A Poet Laureate's Chronicle of the NC Outer Banks

As an interloper of 20 years to the NC Outer Banks and an avid sponge of its history there is no better chronicler of that history and bringing it to life than Angel Khoury. She has woven her extensive knowledge, research, and that of those who came before her into a must read for anyone interested in the NC Outer Banks. Her knowledge of its marine based DNA, its shifting barrier sands, the fishing villages, and its historical significance beyond The Wright Brothers and The Lost Colony is from the eye and pen of our Poet Laureate of all things that make OBX unique. As one who works in OBX tourism and is asked to relate the vast history of the OBX and Roanoke Island daily to tourists who visit us seasonally, between Angel's original non-fiction "Manteo: A Roanoke Island Town" and "Between Tides" there are no better primers on this magical place and its founding fathers and mothers than those Angel has related within these pages. I can only speak of the Roanoke Island/NC OBX content but I suspect the Chatham/Cape Cod content is equal in its historical content and vision. This book is a must read if your heart ever lingers where the waters meet the sand.

the performance equalled only by the writing

this is fiction that rhymes with reality. So close is one to the other, hard to tell them apart. A love story that migrates like the birds. The narration could not be improved upon.

Savor it

Between Tides is an intricately woven story of love, loss, and longing, given to us by a writer with the ear of a poet and the eye of a painter.

Inspired by a true story she happened upon when researching her non-fiction history of Manteo, N.C., (Manteo: A Roanoke Island Town), Angel Khoury's curiosity about "the man with two families" led her on a years-long exploration of a man who disappeared "between tides" and the women he loved and abandoned. What her meticulous research could not unearth, Khoury imagines from the point of view of the man's first wife and in doing so creates a character as real as any I've met in literature. The island settings are equally vivid--owing to the author's powers of observation and her intimate knowledge of maritime nature. What a joy it is to read (or listen to) the work of a writer whose mastery of the craft equals her creativity.

The narrator, Hillary Huber, does justice to the novel's lyrical beauty. What a voice! With so many audio books, I'm conscious of the performers; they are intermediaries between the story and the listener who often get in the way. Not so with Huber. She doesn't so much perform the story as inhabit the characters.

What more can I say about this exquisite work beyond noting that, the same day I finished listening to Between Tides, I opened my hardcover copy and started the story all over again--this time as a reader.

thoughtfully written

This was a well written story about love and growth that made even the sad parts beautiful. There were times I played back parts because they were so perfectly written that I wanted to really absorb what was said. Thank you!

Impossible to finish

I have listened to a hundred books and never has there been one i was literally unable to finish. Even when they’ve been not great, I finish what I begin. This is impossible to follow the narrator, of whom I’ve enjoyed in the past, couldn’t even make this story comprehendible. It jumps around and er voice trying to change characters is dreadful. I’m sorry save your credit. I give up!