Black woods, blue sky : a novel

Birdie splits her days between caring for her six-year-old daughter, Emaleen, and working as a waitress at a roadside lodge in Alaska. Arthur is a soft-spoken recluse - adopted as a boy under mysterious circumstances by a local couple who raised him as their own but understood that he could never fully fit into their world. When he shows up at Birdie's lodge one day and she serves him honey and tea, the two form a friendship, and as they eventually fall in love Birdie begins to imagine a different life for herself and her daughter.