Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

By: Morgan Callan Rogers

Narrated by: Luci Christian

When her mother disappears during a weekend trip, Florine Gilham’s idyllic childhood is turned upside down. Until then she’d been blissfully insulated by the rhythms of family life in small town Maine: watching from the granite cliffs above the sea for her father’s lobster boat to come into port, making bread with her grandmother, and infiltrating the summer tourist camps with her friends. But with her mother gone, the heart falls out of Florine’s life and she and her father are isolated as they struggle to manage their loss.

Both sustained and challenged by the advice and expectations of her family and neighbors, Florine grows up with her spirit intact. And when her father’s past comes to call, she must accept that life won’t ever be the same while keeping her mother vivid in her memories.

With Fannie Flagg’s humor and Elizabeth Stroud’s sense of place, this debut is an extraordinary snapshot of a bygone America through the eyes of an inspiring girl blazing her own path to womanhood.

©2012 Morgan Callan Rogers. Recorded by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (P)2012 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

“So rapturously moving, I could barely bring myself to close the final page.” (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You)

“Not since Ellen Foster have I rooted so hard for a fictional girl.” (Monica Wood, author of Any Bitter Thing)

Coming of age in Maine, circa 1963

Would you listen to Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea again? Why?

I enjoyed the story, but I rarely re-listen to anything. Too many wonderful stories waiting to be heard !

Who was your favorite character and why?

Grand. I wanted her to be my grandmother.

Have you listened to any of Luci Christian’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My first time listening to Luci Christian. I thought she was excellent. She has a " young" voice that suited the first-person narrator, and she added a touch of Maine accenting to her reading of the adult characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it wasn't a page turner. This is a coming of age story, not a thriller.