Our Homesick Songs

August 13, 2018
A family struggles to hold on to the only home it has ever known in this moving novel from Hooper (Etta and Otto and Russell and James). The Connor family lives in Big Running, Newfoundland, an oceanside village that has fallen on hard times after the fish have mysteriously disappeared. Parents Aiden and Martha both grew up in Big Running and decided to stay with their adolescent children, Cora and Finn, when the other families began to move away. To support the family, Aiden and Martha alternate months caring for the children and working at an energy plant north of Big Running. With little to hold their attention, Cora and Finn find their own projects: Cora restyles abandoned houses in the theme of countries she dreams of visiting; Finn investigates the local plant life and begins to formulate a theory about the missing fish. When the government halts public services and advises residents to leave the desolate town, the Connors must make drastic choices if they wish to cling to their way of life. With stark prose, Hooper captures the desperation and difficulty of life on the edge of civilization while maintaining the foundation of tenderness as her characters take care of one another in the face of near-insurmountable struggle. Heartbreaking and empathetic, Hooper’s fine novel is a haunting evocation of changing times and the power of place.

Novelist Emma Hooper is also a musician, and in this audiobook her instrument is the language of Newfoundland. The virtuoso who plays that instrument is narrator Nicole Power, a native Newfoundlander whose authentic accent brings the dialogue alive for listeners. It's 1992, and the cod have disappeared from the fishing communities they once sustained. This devastating period in Canadian history is the backdrop for the story of the Connor family, who are slowly pulled apart by economic necessity. When their parents are compelled to move across the country to find work, 10-year-old Finn and his older sister, Cora, are forced to adapt to their new reality. Power's voices are pitch-perfect, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, in turn. D.B. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine