Refuge

"To whom do we offer refuge -- and why? After a life that rubbed up against the century's great events in New York City Mexico and Montreal 96-year-old Cassandra MacCallum is surviving well enough alone on her island when a young Burmese woman contacts her claiming to be kin. Curiosity loneliness and a slender filament of hope prompts the old woman to accept a visit. But Nang's story of torture and flight provokes memories in Cass that peel back layer by layer the events that brought her to this moment—and forces her against her will to confront the tragedy she has refused for half a century. What does she owe this girl who claims to be stateless because of her MacCallum blood? Drawn despite herself into Nang's search for refuge Cass struggles to accept the past and find a way into whatever future remains to her."-- Cover flap.