Virginia Thorndike, Maine's own version of Studs Terkel, traveled to all the Maine coast islands that still maintain a year-round population and persuaded the islanders to talk openly about their lives. The result is a compulsively readable, unvarnished, and appealing portrait, much of it in the islanders' own words. The 15 islands not accessible by bridge that still have year-round populations are: Isle au Haut, Islesboro, the Cranberry Isles (near Mt. Desert Island), Eagle Island, Long Island (Frenchboro), Long Island (Casco Bay), Matinicus, Monhegan, North Haven, Swans Island, Vinalhaven, Peaks, Chebeague, Great Diamond, and Cliff.