![]() ![]() Otto waiting writing letters Etta will never read, making animal sculptures for who knows what reason. Faithful Russell, determined to find her. ![]() Etta: the young school teacher, the war worker and the old woman with a mission it’s hard to understand. This is all reminiscent of Rachel James’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry but the books couldn’t be more different. Welcoming parties appear, people want to meet her and to give her things. Everything James says is printed in italics and to know the reason for that, you’ll just have to read the book.Īs Etta progresses on her journey her picture appears in a newspaper and she becomes famous. The style is also eccentric: no punctuation used for speech, for instance. ![]() At times the characters become confused so that one is sharing the experiences of the other. The narrative is arranged like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scattered all over a table you have to put the picture together for yourself. ![]() The story is set before, during and a long time after the Second World War. One morning Etta, aged eighty two, leaves a note and sets off on a solitary walk because she needs to see ‘the water’. The isolated farmsteads, the wind and dust suggest the Midwest but no, we’re in Saskatchewan. Initially I was confused by the location. Etta, Otto and Russell are in their eighties, yet still in a love triangle going back years. This is a remarkable first novel from Emma Hooper. ![]()
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