Safe Harbour - Danielle Steel

In her fifty-ninth bestselling novel, Danielle Steel tells an unforgettable story
of survival...of how two people who lost everything find hope...and of the extraordinary
acts of faith and courage that bring -and keep- families together...

On a windswept
summer day, as the fog rolls across the San Francisco coastline, a solitary figure
walks down the beach, a dog at her side.
At eleven, Pip Mackenzie's young life has
already been touched by tragedy; nine months before, a terrible accident plunged
her mother into inconsolable grief.
But on this chilly July afternoon, Pip meets
someone who fills her sad gray world with color and light.
And in her innocence
and in his kindness, a spark will be kindled, lives will be changed, and a journey
of hope will begin.

From the moment the curly-haired girl walks up to his easel
on the sand, Matt Bowles senses something magical about her.
Pip reminds him of
his own daughter at that age, before a bitter divorce tore his family apart and swept
his children halfway across the world.
With her own mother, Ophlie, retreating
deeper into her grief, Pip spends her summer at the shore the way lonely children
do: watching the glittering waters and rushing clouds, daydreaming and remembering
how things used to be.
That is, until she meets artist Matt Bowles, who offers to
teach the girl to draw-and can't help but notice her beautiful, lonely mother.
At
first, Ophlie is thrown off balance by her daughter's new companion-until she realizes
how much joy he is bringing into their lives, despite the sadness she sees in his
eyes.
As their newfound friend works his subtle magic, mother and daughter slowly
begin to heal, to laugh again, to rediscover what they have lost.

When summer ends,
and Ophlie and Pip must leave the beach for the city, the season of healing continues.
Gathering her newfound strength, Ophlie begins a volunteer job at a city outreach
program, where she works with the homeless, and can no longer ignore the blessings
in her own life.
But as soul-sharing phone calls and autumn beach getaways deepen
Ophlie and Matt's friendship, fate strikes another blow.
Out of the blue, Matt
must confront unfinished business from his past.
Days later, Ophlie is struck by
a stunning betrayal by someone she trusts.
And as these events reverberate in two
already wounded hearts, something extraordinary happens.
Out of the darkness that
has shadowed them both comes an unexpected gift of hope.

With grace and compassion,
Danielle Steel explores the fragile bonds between mothers and daughters, husbands
and wives, family members and lifelong friends.
Her haunting, impassioned novel
takes us across the complex landscape of loss-to the blessings that arise from even
the darkest tragedies.
At once a story of triumph and a moving elegy to those who
suffer and survive, Safe Harbour is perhaps her most powerful and life-affirming
novel to date.