In this riveting literary mainstream story, the gutsy, independent, 38-year-old widow, Jacqueline Knight, will grip your heart and not let it go. Anne James's extraordinary first work opens as a group of first time kayakers paddle the ACE Basin in the low country of South Carolina. But the focus soon turns to Jackie's decision to move back to the family farm in the Midwest, a part of the country loaded with conservative relatives who demonstrate the heartwarming values of a simpler way of life. Tension filled moments pepper the pages, escalating the story through alligator attacks, subtle stalkings by a depraved southern lawyer, and the wrenching lessons learned from raising cows. Independent to the core, Jackie moves through life's duties raising a parallel to the reader's own life.A few intrepid women influence Jackie as they love and guide her. Her ninety-year-old great Aunt Effie lends salty advice at every turn. Bertha, a Gullah speaking native, has the wisdom of the ages that she imparts to Jackie in no-nonsense ways.Bounce with Jackie in her cherry red 1954 Ford F-100 pickup whose truck bed is usually filled by Boomer, her Saint Bernard. No Woman Is An Island is a realistic exploration of one woman's fight against the coils of grief that lead back to the matter-of-fact joys of everyday living, bringing her a new emotional and spiritual maturity.