Imagine seeing colors and brightness again after years of blindness. That's how Jennifer Armstrong's new novel hits the reader--with a flash and a cavalcade of awakening senses. The last time we saw Mary Mehan, in The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan, she used the Irish spelling of her name and was busy nursing soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War. Armstrong's sequel follows this strong protagonist up North, where she begins to work for an eccentric naturalist and his household--an arrangement made for her by the poet Walt Whitman. Tired, dreary, and emotionally closed after all of the pain and suffering she witnessed during the war, it takes a few miracles (and perhaps falling in love) for Mary to come out of her shell and face the world. Watching Mary awaken is sheer delight. Armstrong writes with a tender, thoughtful hand; she weaves metaphors skillfully, allowing her readers to be right inside Mary's heart as the world again takes on shape, color, and light.