We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,560,326.82 | Books Available: 797,331 | Members Online: 30

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - An Ocean Apart

An Ocean Apart
Author: Robin Pilcher

There was a time when David Corstorphine considered himself a lucky man. His wife, Rachel, was all he could hope to find in a woman--lovely, smart, and full of spirit--though after their awkward first meeting, he never would have dreamed that they would go on to share the joyful struggles of raising a family together. Even as she faced cancer, s... more »he did so with the thirst for life that David adored, a smile always playing on her face.

Now she is gone and David's life is in ruins. In search of solace, he and his children seek refuge at Inchelvie, his parents' home in the Scottish countryside. Devastated by overwhelming grief, David withdraws from his parents, friends, and business responsibilities. Rather, he spends his days knee-deep in mud, focusing all of his energies on the reinstatement of Inchelvie's gardens. It is only while working in the gardens that David finds respite from his pain.

It is a crisis at the family business that forces David to begin his tentative return to the world of the living. Though he has steeled himself for this urgent trip to the United States by staying in the home of an old army friend, he quickly learns that he is ill-prepared emotionally to face the world once again. But David is also surprised to find a certain degree of comfort in being a stranger in a strange land. In America he is free from all that has happened to him and able to reconstruct his shattered life.

Wandering the village streets, he happens upon a sign that reads: GARDENER/HANDYMAN REQUIRED. Soon he is spending his days working in a large garden on a Long Island estate. With the heat of the American sun on his back and in his new surroundings, David begins to feel alive again.

Gradually he comes to know the lively housekeeper, Jasmine, and Benjy, a lonely boy whose parents own this beautiful home, though they are rarely in it together. He befriends Benjy, teaching him how to swim, to play the ukulele and tennis, and he comes to see how Benjy's parents' strained marriage has taken its toll on the young boy. But David needs this boy's friendship as much as Benjy needs his.

It is some time before Benjy's mother also notices the mysterious Scottish gardener who is making her son smile and laugh again.

By caring for another family, David becomes able to care for his own again. By loving another family, David becomes able to love again.