Sixty-year-old Maddy marries in haste, only to discover that her new husband is an abusive narcissist. He moves Maddy away from family and friends in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Victoria, Australia, where she must now cope in a foreign country, lacking personal support or finances to sustain her. Maddy reflects back on her childhood on Fireweed Island in the 1950s and 1960s, thinking of her older sister, Erin, her father, Gordon, and her troubled mother, Florence. Anger consumes Florence because Gordon becomes ill and is no longer able to provide her with a comfortable lifestyle. After his death, the whole family seems to fall apart. Erin runs off with her boyfriend, leaving Maddy to deal with her vindictive mother. The novel races to its chilling conclusion when Maddy is forced to fight for survival against a dangerous, vengeful ex-husband in a foreign land. Fireweed Island is a story of power and vulnerability, as well as how family history can mold a person's life. Now retired, Mary E. Dickson worked for the Canadian government and the province of British Columbia. She grew up on a small island east of Vancouver, where the native Indians died of a smallpox epidemic in the 1700s. There she often found native artifacts in the surrounding meadows and shoreline. This first-time author wanted to write about a character who overcomes her own emotional self-destruction. "I also wanted to portray how vulnerable and fragile family unity can be and how easily it can disintegrate into nothing."Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/MaryEDickson