Plot

Synopsis of The Other Side of the Sea

by becky wheeler

The year is 1943 and 14-year-old Sophia Barnett's life has felt nothing but alien to her the past eight months. Ever since she and her parents stopped receiving letters from Tristan, her brother who went to fight over in Europe for the Allies, nothing has seemed the same around their rural Irish estate. A dull haze has settled over everything and everyone, and just as it seems to be lifting for the celebration of Sophia's fourteenth birthday, another surprise rocks her world. A strange boy and his mother are here to stay with Sophia's family. Secrets seem to swirl around the boy and Sophia makes it her mission to find out about him. She feels angered and confused when she is told nothing except that these two strangers will be staying with the family until further notice.
Sophia's luxurious home is on an estate with a gorgeous garden, and surrounded by sprawling woods. She long ago discovered a sacred place in the woods which she calls her sanctuary, and when the new boy, Saul, trespasses upon her sacred realm, Sophia decides it is her personal mission to make him uncomfortable with his new accommodations.
What Sophia eventually discovers about this unwelcome visitor tears her world in two. The boy and his mother, a dear friend of Sophia's mother, are Jewish refugees smuggled into Ireland to stay with Sophia's family.  After she learns the truth about Saul, a camaraderie develops. Over the months their friendship deepens, along with Sophia's understanding of the war. Keeping the secret behind their identities is of grave significance. If Sophia's Grandfather, a passionate IRA member, finds out his own son and daughter-in-law are helping the Ally regime, they will all be made to suffer. Now Sophia, always her Grandfather's favorite, is faced with a decision where she does not like either outcome. How does she decide where her loyalties lie? Could she ever live with herself for sending these two friends back to the horror that barely let them out alive? But can she continually keep lying to her Grandfather?
            Together Sophia and Saul's memorable adventures bring insightful impressions of life and the purpose and inclinations of others and themselves. Will their experiences provide them enough intuition to make the difficult choices they must make?

This is only the basic, rough-draft main storyline. There are many secondary characters and side stories that accompany these multidimensional people along their lives.

This story is told from younger perspectives by very bright and captivating characters, and addresses the constant balance of figuring out what is expected of you and what you grow to expect of yourself to be able to live with yourself. Some decisions are quick and easy, others are agonizing with the weight of their possible outcomes. Secrets kept, truths betrayed, honoring your family before yourself or your morals before family, these themes are a major component of this novel and will be compassionately, yet realistically portrayed within every character's growth over the arc of the story line.

The story will fill out and gain running legs during my research venture and I am so excited to be at this point in my ability and my motivation. This book is a mission I feel to put out to the world. I offer my many thanks for your time in reading this and for your positive thoughts as I continue along this journey!