In Rare Earths, poet and novelist Deena Linett has created an intriguing and suspenseful story in verse. Mairi MacIntyre, a young archaeologist, travels to the desolate North Sea Island of St. Kilda where--in journal excerpts and letters--she comes to terms with her own repressed longings and inner life, and her ties to the women who once inhabited the island.

Deena Linett has published two prize-winning novels, On Common Ground and The Translator's Wife. Her poetry has been widely published in literary journals including The Missouri Review, in which ten poems from Rare Earths appeared in the 20th Anniversary Issue in May 1997. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.