The Year of Fog: A Novel

by Michelle Richmond

In one instant, your life can change forever. One foggy morning, professional photographer Abby Mason is walking along the beach in San Francisco, taking a few pictures. Emma, Abby's fiance Jake's six year old daughter, runs ahead to look for sand dollars and then a moment later, she is gone. Abby and Jake are completely devastated, consumed by their tireless search for Emma. Police aren't sure if she drowned in the unpredictable water or if she was kidnapped. Feeling enormous guilt, Abby becomes obsessed with finding the little girl, continuing her desperate search even after detectives close the case and Jake holds a memorial service in order to get some kind of closure. Abby is haunted by the idea that there are important clues buried deep in her memory of that fateful morning.

This novel is suspenseful and well written, with an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. Richmond includes lots of interesting facts and observations about both memory and photography, including this passage:

"We take pictures because we can't accept that everything passes, we can't accept that the repetition of a moment is an impossibility... We take pictures because we know we will forget. We will forget the week, the day, the hour. We will forget when we were happiest. We take pictures out of pride, a desire to have the best of ourselves preserved. We fear that we will die and others will not know that we lived."

An interesting book about a family coming together and then being ripped apart, about losing the ones you love most and about not giving up no matter what. Recommended.