Drawn to its rich maritime history, Ellie and Ty Malone purchase a grand home in Bath, Maine, and discover the story of a prominent shipbuilding family who lived there in the 1800s. Daughters of Long Reach explores love and loss through the lens of multiple families who are separated by time but connected by the rolling tides of the Kennebec River. Anna Malone, a modern-day daughter, arrives in Bath to heal and to begin to write again after losing her heart and her work to a charming, but duplicitous, filmmaker. Stella Rose leaves Bath in the 1940s to nurse wounded sailors, but she finds love in the middle of war and may never go home again. Thomas Goss, a sea captain at the turn of the 20th century, comes back to Bath to save his soul, but he almost loses it completely. Across three centuries, Long Reach ties hearts and souls together with a sailor’s knot.
Drago’s debut novel, Daughters of Long Reach, is an ambitious yet charming blend of history and romance set across two centuries and several generations of families living in Bath, along the Long Reach portion of the Kennebec River. This is a shipbuilding, seafaring, family love story, folding in real history and real people, with thoughtful fiction to fill out this clever tale.
–Bill Bushnell
Drago delivers a beautifully written debut novel set in the town of Bath, nestled along the coast of Maine. The story, steeped in local maritime history, deftly weaves past and present honoring core New England values—love of family, love of history, and the importance of fighting for what you believe. Readers will be well pleased!
— Julie Shea, owner of The Mustard Seed Bookstore