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Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach. In the seconds when Abby Mason-photographer, fiancée, soon-to-be-stepmother-looks into her camera and commits her greatest error. Heartbreaking, uplifting, and beautifully told, here is the riveting tale of a family torn apart, of the search for the truth behind a child's disappearance, and of one woman's unwavering faith in the redemptive power of love - all made startlingly fresh through Michelle Richmond's incandescent sensitivity and extraordinary insight. Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the
heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger's van,
or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears
about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so
she searches for clues about what happened that morning - and cannot stop the
flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that
irreversible moment on the beach.
Michelle has received the Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Associated Writing Programs Award, the James Michener Fellowship, and the Walker E. Dakin Fellowship, among others. Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Oxford American, Salon, The Guardian, The Believer, Best American Fantasy, and many magazines and anthologies. She holds an MFA from the University of Miami and has taught in the MFA programs in Creative Writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, and St. Mary's College of Moraga. She currently serves on the Executive Council of the Authors Guild. The Year of Fog was rejected by 15 publishers before landing on the desk of a young editor at Random House. It went on to become one of Library Journal's Best Books of 2007, a selection for the Elle Prix des Lectrices, a Kirkus Reviews Top Pick for Reading Groups, a New York Times bestseller, and a San Franciso Chronicle Notable Book. It has been published in 10 languages and optioned for the big screen by Newmarket Films.
1. The Year of Fog unfolds as a series of flashbacks and present-tense
scenes. How do Abby's impressions of her own past shift as she searches for
Emma? What does her research on the neuroscience of memory tell us about the
limits and the power of the mind's imagery?
2. How much was Emma a factor in Abby's relationship with Jake? After Emma's
disappearance, what did they discover about each other? Why was it awkward for
Abby to see Jake turn to religion? Why was he skeptical of her insistence that
Emma didn't drown but was kidnapped?
3. How does Abby's eye as a photographer shape the way she sees the world around
her? What does she see that others don't? What kinds of images captivate her the
most? What does her approach to photography indicate about her approach to life?
4. Are Ramon and Jake entirely different, or was there a common thread that
attracted Abby to each of them? What keeps her from sleeping with Nick in
chapter 40? What has she needed from men in general at crucial points in her
life?
5. How did Abby's recollections of her own mother affect her approach to being a
stepmother?
6. Describing the ancient history of memory studies in chapter 43, Abby mentions
the concept of Renaissance "memory theaters" and later has a dream in which her
memories are displayed in ways she cannot fully comprehend. If your past were to
be categorized in such a way, what would it look like? Which objects would best
represent various events? Which of your memories would you most like to
preserve?
7. Abby struggles with feelings of inadequacy, seeing herself as the sister who
often botches her chances at a happier life. What accounts for the tremendous
differences between her self-perception and Annabel's?
8. How would you describe Lisbeth's wavering, extreme motivations? What would
explain her dangerous decisions? How is she able to appear trustworthy?
9. For Abby, one of the most difficult aspects of the search is the fact that
she doesn't receive full respect as a key figure in Emma's life. Ultimately, how
do you define "a devoted mother"? What are the best examples of good parenting
in the novel? What determines whether someone has what it takes to be a good
parent?
10. What enabled Abby to uncover the truth while Jake could not? Was it her
intuition? Determination? Hypnosis? Fate? Or simply the deep guilt she felt?
What ultimately caused the fog to lift in Emma's disappearance?
11. In many ways, the novel is a poignant portrait of coping with grief, in this
case a very unresolved form of grief. What is the best way to confront tragedy?
12. How did you attempt to solve the mystery of Emma's disappearance? Were you
able to hold out hope for her survival?
13. Goofy's help leads Abby to the sojourn in Costa Rica. What do both beach
communities begin to mean to her? In what way does the landscape, both
liberating and treacherous, form an appropriate place for her to come to terms
with her greatest fears?
14. What is distinct about Abby's storytelling voice? How might the novel have
unfolded had it been told from Jake's point of view?
15. What did the novel reveal to you about the world of missing children and
their families? Did it change your perspective on the real-life cases you
encounter in the media? 16. As you saw Abby catch a wave in the final paragraph, what did you predict for her future?
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Michelle Richmond 
