Monhegan Windows is a literary novel of grief, loss, transition and the magic of art and storytelling.

A Midwestern man in his 40s, drowning in an emotional crisis, aimlessly traveling along the East Coast, comes to Monhegan Island (a very real island off the coast of Maine) for the first time early one summer season. He knows little of the island -- its noted artist colony, its wooded trails, the island life of its lobstering community in the off-season -- until he is immersed into the life of the island to the degree an outsider can be, and becomes drawn in by one of Monhegan's longtime artists.

Soon the reader learns that this story is being written and posted on the island over the course of the summer by a character in a second story - one that follows this same basic plot structure but that evolves very differently . . . in its story and in its style.

Augmenting the novel's duel tale are 25 photographs of Monhegan accompanying one story, as well as reproductions of 24 Monhegan art works by 15 professional artists accompanying the other story.

The novel has circulated in a limited edition, mainly along the Midcoast of Maine, near where the story is set. Early readers have not only been impressed by the emotional depth of the characters, the stories, the intricacies of the author's storytelling, and meditations on art and nature, reality and illusion, grief and renewal, but by the vividness and detail of the setting. Longtime lovers of Monhegan comment that reading the book is like an extra trip to the island; those unfamiliar with it often say they could step on the island now for the first time and navigate it like a perennial visitor.

Matthew Kiell is a professional writer, editor, photographer and independent publisher with a 30-year career.