Last Chance Bay

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Set in Cape Breton during World War II, Last Chance Bay is the story of
a teenage girl who wishes she could “wake up as a boy” so that she
could “fly a plane right off Cape Breton Island.” Meg’s father is
a coal miner. Her family is poor, life is hard, and she wants a life
that offers more than what she can expect on the island. Ever since the
local crash landing of a small plane piloted by Beryl Markham (she and
Amelia Earhart are Meg’s heroines), Meg has dreamed of learning to
fly.

Meg is about to graduate from high school. As two of the five top
students, she and her friend Caleb have been chosen to give five-minute
speeches at the graduation ceremonies. Very soon thereafter, Caleb
enlists and is posted to France. Then Meg’s older brother, Will, also
a miner, falls sick with flu. Meg blackens her face, hides her hair
under a cap, passes herself off as Will, and spends a tough day
underground with her father. As Meg sees it, if she were a boy, she
could do anything. Eventually, though, she comes to see that gender is
not the issue, that realizing her dream is a matter of faith in herself,
hard work, and determination.

Last Chance Bay is packed with exciting action and memorable
characters. Carter’s description of a miner’s job is dramatic and
moving. The exceptionally fine story catches the spirit of the
close-knit community and the heroic times of the early 1940s. Highly
recommended.