Sea Level

“Sea Level carries the reader through the knotty patterns of grace and orneriness of a rural, coastal Virginia church as it rides the waves in accepting its first female minister, Brigid Peterson.”
– Laura Delaplain on Her Circle Ezine  [Read Full Review]

“…what a pleasure… a simple plot fleshed out and crafted beautifully and originally, like one of Mary’s canvases. The scenes are so vividly painted, the characters so carefully created, that I feel like I’ve been to Sand Hill, visited with Mary and… Brigid, and care for them enough that a day later, I am still thinking about them, wondering what happens next.”
– Tania Aebi, author of Maiden Voyage

“More than just a novel about a woman in ministry; more than just a tale about a small town church; Sea Level is a story about life and the real ways we learn to live in community. A touching narrative about things that matter.”
– Lynne Hinton, author of Friendship Cake and Pie Town

“Sea Level brings to life the tensions that inevitably arise when a
new minister is taken on by a congregation mired in its traditions and
uncertain whether it wants leadership or obedience. The novel’s
heroine, Brigid Peterson, is newly ordained and convinced she should
guide her small Virginia church toward solvency and authentic openness. But she is a woman and a feminist, as well as a wife and mother, and she faces resistance from the start. Her story is a cautionary tale, which she survives with both grace and dignity, though not before an agonizing assessment of her vocation.”
– C. Michael Curtis, Fiction Editor, The Atlantic

“…a vibrant story of manners and place. Kilgore brings to life a
world of ocean mists, oyster fairs and elderly, quince-jelly-making
Southern ladies who grow militant at the hint of a threat to their
precious fund for the caretaking of the cemetery. Their lives and their
reasons for resisting Brigid’s innovations are never caricatured. Kilgore has obvious affection for this coastal world of “wet gray light,” which already belongs partly to memory — “they’re even saying we might all be oystered out soon,” notes one old-timer…in her evocative descriptions of the town of Sand Hill from the point of view of Mary Bradley, an artist who returns home from Manhattan and falls in love with a difficult, elusive man, Kilgore treads the same territory as Alice Munro. It’s quiet, indeed, but for readers who prefer the domestic to the apocalyptic, Sea Level is worth seeking.”
– Margot Harrison, Seven Days