Tempting Fate

This is the story of 20-year-old Allie, a troubled young woman with a fighting spirit, on the run from an unhappy past. Having drifted west across the continental US in search of something she can't put a name on, she spends her last dollars on a ferry to Alaska and steps off the boat in a fishing town called Vladimir. At last, she thinks, she's found the place she belongs. Vladimir is full of simple, honest people who've got a grip on what life's about and how it should be lived. Or do they? As Allie puts down roots and gets to know the people of the town, she is drawn into their problems and secrets and private hells. She meets Nikolai, a Soviet emigre tormented by a shameful secret; Sonny, a beautiful Indian boy trapped by his own fears; and Vivian, Sonny's hard-drinking, hard-loving mother. Through Allie's memories, her own secret past is revealed. Her real longing is for a home and family to call her own, and it is this aching desire this leads her into danger, love, and tragedy.This book is great -- a cross between The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (cast of desperate characters struggling for emotional survival in a no-exit town) and Huck Finn (runaway kid in an adventure/coming-of-age story). I don't know of another novel that features a female hero quite like Allie: brave, restless, troubled, searching, battered but resilient. Yet she is so familiar. She's all of us at that age: on the cusp of adulthood, looking forward and back at the same time; searching, hoping, driven, and a little desperate, trying to find our way and forge a life of our own.