Anne of the Island

The third installment finds Anne Shirley leaving Prince Edward Island for the first time, heading to Redmond College to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree. The girl who once dreamed of having hair like the rubies of a king's crown is now a young woman on the threshold of life, and Montgomery captures that liminal space with characteristic grace. At college, Anne encounters new kindred spirits, weathers the small cruelties and great joys of growing up, and faces her first brushes with love and heartbreak. The novel traces her evolution from provincial girl to educated, independent woman, all while preserving that irrepressible imagination that made her beloved in the first place. There is a particular bittersweetness here, a sense that Anne herself is saying goodbye to something she can never quite return to, and that loss infuses every page with quiet, aching beauty. For anyone who has ever had to leave the place where they were most loved, this is Anne's, and Montgomery's, most poignant gift.