I was delighted to have been invited to read this book as an advance reader copy after thoroughly enjoying and reviewing Emma Hooper's first novel, Emma and Otto and Russel and James. I wish that I loved this novel as strongly as I love E.O.R.J. but something in this one fell a bit flat for me.

The good: Ms. Hooper still does a fantastic job of creating a world in which you can place yourself with the characters. You could visualize the cold and bleak area, the dying fishing town, and the eccentric characters fit well within that framework. Those characters too were vivid and refreshing. The relationship between Aiden and Martha was so realistic and showed how relationships grow and can be picked apart and put back together again in a naturally unnatural way. The pluck and vigor of Finn was so much fun.

The problem: The whole thing didn't really hold together for me. I feel there were MAJOR things that were glossed over surrounding the actions of the children. I understand that the parents were wrapped up in their own stuff but Cora's storyline especially struck me as especially egregious. (I SO want to give stuff away here but will refrain).

I wanted to love this but I just couldn't though I am grateful to the publisher, author and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Set in Newfoundland in the 90s, it seems the once-plentiful fish have disappeared and those who made their living from fishing are moving on from the island of Big Running. But one family who has managed to stay is Aidan Connor and his wife Martha with their two children, Finn and Cora. Their solution is for each to go off to Alberta, alternating one month each, and work in the energy fields.

But that is good for no one...and soon 14-year-old Cora is gone too, leaving 10-year-old Finn behind, the only kid on the island. He must find a way to bring the fish back--and by extension, his sister, his family and the rest of the islanders.

Another part of the book is the backstory of how Aiden and Martha met and fell in love. Each thought the other was a mermaid, as Aiden sang from his fishing boat each night and Martha sang from the shore while she knotted her nets. Is it true that all Connors cheat, as local lore would have it?

Newfoundland itself is of course another character in the story in all its wildness and beauty and the songs of the sailors and fishermen still echo across the waters. "The only, the best, way for them to remember home was through singing, through the songs and tunes they knew from home. When they were homesick, when they needed to remember where they were from, they could sing to see, to remember."

Folk Song of Scottish/English origin: "The Water is Wide"
"The water is wide
I cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row my love and I

O love is handsome and love is fine
And love's a jewel while its first new
But love grows old, and waxes gold
And fades away like morning dew

There is a ship, its sailing the sea
It's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as my love for him
I know not if I sink or swim

The water is wide
I cannot get o'er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row my love and I

And both shall row my love and I 🌹"

Lovely traditional version by Karla Bonoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EfHZ...

Newfoundland Folk Song: "She's Like A Swallow:
"She's like the swallow that flies so high
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore.
I love my love and she'll love no more.

Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go,
A picking the beautiful prim-e-rose;
The more she plucked the more she pulled
Until she got her a-pr-on full.

Twas out of those roses she made a bed,
A stony pillow for her head.
She laid her down, no word she spoke
Until this fair maid's heart was broke.

She's like the swallow that flies so high
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore.
She lost her love and she'll love no more.

Tis out in the meadow this fair maid did go
Picking the lovely primrose
The more she plucked the more she pulled
Until she's got her apron full

She climbed on yonder hill above
To give a rose unto her love
She gave him one, she gave him three
She gave her heart for company

And as they sat on yonder hill
His heart grew hard, so harder still
He has two hearts instead of one
She says, young man what have you done

How foolish, foolish you must be
To think I loved no one but thee
This world's not made for one alone
I take delight in everyone."

Elizabeth Mannhardt sings it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtMN6...

And one final youtube video for "The Fish of the Sea", a Scottish sea shanty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u5fu...

Many thanks to the publisher and author for providing me with an arc of this heart-warming book via NetGalley for an honest review.

3.5 Atmosphere-out-the-ying-yang stars

Remember the Dick and Jane primers from grade school? Well, I do, and the dialogue in this novel all sounded like See Jane Run. The rest of the book, about a dying sea town in Newfoundland, has a LOT of power. There’s fishing, singing, freezing, and an intense, forlorn family. But I couldn’t stop feeling like I was just learning to read.

Joy Jar

-Take away the dialogue, and there was poetry happening. Good poetry: easy on the eyes, easy on the mind.

-Where did the author come up with THIS? That’s what I kept asking myself. It’s a super creative, unique story.

-Atmosphere out the ying-yang, an ethereal vibe. It’s a stark stark life for this Newfoundland family who is trying to afford living in their dying town by the sea. Vivid scenes: the abandoned homes, the brutal landscape, the severe cold, the fish nets, the sea. And I could feel the isolation. The atmosphere is the selling point, as far as I’m concerned.

-Intense, well-drawn characters. Even though there wasn’t a lot of talk, you knew this was one intense family. I like intense, even if it’s quiet.

-A few fascinating fish facts at the end of the book. Fish can communicate, who knew? Even though I hate non-fiction to creep into any fictional story, this bit of info entertained me.

Complaint Board

-See Jane Run! I already talked about this. The dialogue is just too stilted and sparse. I imagine some people do talk that way, all staccato, people of few words, but they sure wouldn’t be in my inner circle. I like gabbers. I think the author went overboard with the “show, don’t tell” rule. The style kept me from feeling emotional about any of the characters.

Sometimes there are full sentences but a lot of the time the conversations are monosyllabic. Here’s a sample; one of many:

“Wow, said Finn.
Yep, said Cora. It’s way better than here.
Is it?
Yep. I hate it here, said Cora.
You do?
Yep.”
See Jane run (doesn’t it just fit perfectly here?)

-Sparse city. The story was told so simply, I would have killed for a complex sentence or two. It just wasn’t my style. I like the story to flow, not be all jammed up and stilty. And sometimes the sparse style seemed self-conscious.

-Come on, freezing water kills. Several times, a character fell in the water—and each time hypothermia didn’t kill them. These were sub-zero temps, folks. Can people really survive that? I have my doubts.

-Fairy tales and folklore, anyone? Well, I don’t like to be served the stuff, actually, so save your little treats for a more interested soul. There were occasional mermaids, fairy tales, and folklore, which made me back away. It wasn’t overbearing—I could tolerate it—it just didn’t interest me.

-No sing-alongs for me! Well, I wasn’t invited, actually, but I wouldn’t have joined in if they paid me. The simplistic songs, which appeared entirely too often (like they were all important), didn’t do a thing for me, other than to bore or annoy me. But when I read the author’s note, where she went into the interesting history of these ancient songs, I decided maybe I was missing something, maybe I needed to hear them and I’d change my mind. So yes, I went to iTunes and found them. I obsessively listened to them, over and over, many different singers and styles—I tried so hard to like them! Now that’s devotion, lol. It didn’t work. I tried to listen to them with new ears, but my old ears weren’t having any of it. You can’t change your tastes, period. I should have known better.

-Fancy meeting you in the forest! Okay, there are a zillion acres of forest, and two of the characters (strangers) run into each other in the woods? I don’t think so! I just couldn’t buy that huge coincidence. The meeting wasn’t critical to the plot so I don’t understand why the author threw that scene in anyway.

The bottom line: I was never hot to pick the book up; too many nits kept flying around in my head. I just wanted it to be over so I could start a new book. But I love that the author painted a vivid picture of the coastline of Newfoundland and the people who lived in a ghost town there—it was powerful. I will remember the feeling, the immersion into another world.

Read other reviews, please, because you shouldn’t just hear about this book from a person with a big Complaint Board—I’m in the minority for sure. It’s a good book; the style of the story just didn’t match me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

This is the story of a family of four trying to make it in the ghost town of a fishing village, hanging on after all the fish have vanished. Most of the population has left for jobs and living elsewhere but the parents here take alternating months leaving to work in another city while the rest stay at home. The children, Cora and Finn take a lot of things into their own hands.
There is a present day story, and the story of the parents when they were coming up, both were lovely and a bit magical.
This is a slow read but I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the free eGalley!

Our Homesick Songs is a poetic story of how time and space change our lives. The tale moves slowly, switching back and forth between the 1970s and the 1990s. At its core, the book is focusing on the Connor family, who are torn between leaving their home for more stability and job opportunities, or staying behind on their beloved island.

The writing and format of this book are unique. There are long page breaks, meant to leave you contemplating the previous passage. There is also no quotations, though at some points there is dialogue. I found the story moving and heartbreaking at times, but also sometimes struggled to connect with the characters. Regardless, this book stands out to me as different from many I have read recently, and I think I will often think back on it in the future. I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

OUR HOMESICK SONGS by Emma Hooper is the story of the Connor family, 10-year-old Finn, 14-year-old Cora, and their parents, Martha and Aidan. They live near the fishing village of Big Running, Newfoundland, but the fish are rapidly disappearing and Martha and Aidan take turns working away for a month at a time, even as many of their neighbors completely abandon the area. This is a lyrical, poetic story of loneliness, mermaids, and survival told in two time periods, the mid-1970s when Aidan and Martha first met and fell in love and the early 1990s when the federal Government declared a moratorium on cod fishing. It is a story of a marriage and a family, of sadness, and of hope. Written almost like a fairy tale with elements of magical realism, I found it hard to follow, especially because it is yet another book which does not include punctuation for any dialogue. Booklist, however, gave OUR HOMESICK SONGS a starred review so do look for it if you are in the mood for a slow, reflective, gentle, philosophical, and even musical read.

Big Running used to be a thriving town. But the fish disappeared and one by one, families left the place that was their home. The Connor family is still there, but they have to make some major changes. Aidan and Martha work at an energy company inland for alternating months, while the other parent stays with their children Finn and Cora. The separation is hard on the entire family. Finn becomes obsessed with figuring out why the fish left and how to bring them back. Cora decorates abandoned homes like different countries until the day that she too leaves Big Running and forces the family to choose if they should leave the only home they've ever loved.

Our Homesick Songs is indeed a book about homesickness and what it means to be home. It can often be a certain place, and it is definitely certain people. The author gives us a glimpse into one such town and one such family both in 1993, when the town is slowly abandoned, and the 1970s, when Aidan and Martha meet and fall in love. It's also a story about the importance of story and music and magic in remembering our history and dreaming about our futures.

Our Homesick Songs is the perfect story to read on a hard day. It is a simple read at certain points, almost like a child's fairy tale. But in other chapters, the very adult problems of paying the bills and staying faithful to a spouse you never see take center stage. The characters go through tough times and the story does not ignore the difficulties of loving people well in an ever-changing environment, but it does leave the characters and the readers with hope. We can hope in the goodness of people and the possibility that our love for our families, our friends, and our home will be enough to pull us through the darkest of days.

Our Homesick Songs
By Emma Hooper
Simon and Schuster August 2018
336 pages
Read via Netgalley

This is a beautifully written book with interesting characters and a premise that was intriguing. It's a sad book, though, and moves so slowly it was rather hard to read. I liked the stories in the two time frames, seeing how the characters first came together and then their later life. There didn't seem to be much resolution in the ending . It was an ok book for me, saved by the poetic writing.

Rating: 4.5 stars, rounding down to 4 stars

Emma Hooper has written another unusual gem of a book in, ‘Our Homesick Songs’. Hooper’s earlier book, ‘Etta and Otto and Russell and James’ was published in 2014, and was greeted with critical acclaim. I feel like this book will receive the same acclaim. It at least receives that acclaim from me!

The book opens in 1993 on a remote part of the Newfoundland, Canada coast. The town of Big Running has pretty much been abandoned because the cod fishery has been decimated by big factory fishing ships. With a touch of magical realism, Finn (aged 10) and his sister Cora (aged 14) talk about the singing of the mermaids. The book switches back and forth between the early 1970’s and the early 1990’s. In the 1970’s segments, we learn how Aiden and Martha Connor grew up and fell in love. Theirs was an unconventional courtship, in an unconventional setting. In the 1990’s segments, we learn how the four people in this family are now individually coping (or not coping) with the loss of their livelihood and way of life.

Told in spare and haunting segments, in the 1990’s stories, the reader sees Finn trying to bring back the fish to Big Running, and Cora trying to bring her family (or at least her brother) to a new place. Aiden and Martha are just trying to hold it together. They switch off working in the oil fields in Alberta. They each work one month on and one month off, so there is one parent physically at home at all times. Slowly, the family structure and routines dissolve, leaving each family member to sort out the current circumstances on their own.

I think I felt most keenly for Finn. His accordion teacher Mrs. Callaghan was an anchor for him and told him fabulous stories of the founding of the fisheries in Newfoundland. From there he came up with a plan to entice the fish to return that seemed so terribly logical in a 10 year-old brain, and so sad at the same time. He was left pretty much to his own devices once his parents starting working in Alberta. This sister Cora took another tack to cope, but it was just as poignant in its own way.

The book doesn’t not conform to conventional grammar and punctuation rules. It took me awhile to get used to the lack of quotation marks that normally help me understand when (and which) characters are talking. But from the angst of watching Aiden decide if he could announce his love for Martha, because he was living with the generational legacy of ‘All Connors are cheats’. To seeing how Martha and her three sisters coped with the early death of their parents, I was soon able to follow along without the aid of the quotation marks.

Sometimes the pace of the book slowed to a crawl. At first I was frustrated with that, but eventually I came to realize that it matched the pace of life in the remote, almost deserted Eastern Canadian landscape. I savored the description of the landscape, and the local traditions while I mourned the loss of the way of life. Music is featured prominently in this book; from Finn’s accordion lessons, to Cora’s violin; and always sprinkled throughout the book are the mermaid songs which are really old sea shanties handed down generation to generation. Will these songs have the power to bring back the old way of life?

How do we cope with change as individuals, and as a society? This book gives you a glimpse into possible answers to these questions by presenting an in-depth exploration of the many ways this family copes with the changes. Well done Emma Hooper!

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; Simon & Schuster Publishing; and the author, Emma Hooper; for providing a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I read Our Homesick Songs with three of my Traveling Sisters and we all ended up in the same coulee with this one except for Lindsay who was left feeling this was not the right choice for her.

I instantly connected to the setting in this story as I am Canadian and familiar with both settings in this story. I love the feeling I got while reading this story and it reminded me of that haunting and mysterious the sea can be and I often wonder what secrets it holds. In this story, one of the secrets the sea holds is the mystery to the fish that disappear leaving a small town devastated and desperate as they are left with no industry.

There are some connections to some Canadian history here. In 1992 there was a collapse in the cod fishing industry and Canada declared a moratorium, ending the region's 500-year run with the Northern Cod due to overfishing. This left the fishing industry and communities devastated.

There is something mystical and charming to this story that had us loving how the music, atmosphere, and environment came to life and became like characters for us.

This is a slow paced story that might not be for every reader. The story is told in a such a lyrical way and there is no quotation. For Lindsay, she struggled with connecting to the characters and this story.

I recommend to readers looking for something different here in a story where the focus is on connecting with the characters through the setting and the elements to the story

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Emma Hooper for a copy to read and review.

This is Traveling Sisters GR Reading Group Review and it can be found posted on our themed book blog Two Sisters Lost In A Coulee Reading.
https://twosisterslostinacoulee.com
Coulee: a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley. Coulee references are symbolic to our reading experience

I received a copy from NetGalley. I heard a ton of buzz about this book so that was enough for me to give it a try. Unfortunately, this was one of those instances where the book fell very flat for me. I don’t know if I just didn’t connect to the story, but it was rather slow and it ended rather abruptly so you never knew how things ended up. A lot of other reviewers commented on the poetic style of the author, and I will agree that her writing style was rather beautiful but it wasn’t enough for me.

Our Homesick Songs is the beautifully written story of one family from its beginning and the struggle to keep living their lives when there is nothing left in the ghost town their home has become.

I read this in one day and couldn’t swipe the pages fast enough. While all the characters were exceptionally developed, I adored Finn and his desire to bring life back to Big Running.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the invitation to read this inspirational book!

A lovely sad story of a family losing its home but in the end finding one another. It's the story of Martha and Aiden, who meet as teens, marry, and have Cora and Finn. Aiden fishes and Martha makes fishing net (fascinating how that's done, btw.). Its also the story of her sisters (love Meredith). Mostly, though, it is Cora and Finn who are at the heart of the tale- Cora who seeks something better and Finn who does not want to leave. Cora decorates the abandoned houses all around them in a country theme- there's an Italian house, a Russian house, a South African house. Finn wants others to believe there are still fish to be had. The writing is delightful, the story one I'm afraid we'll see more of in real life, and all in all, thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is a very good read.

4.5 lyrically beautiful stars

There are some books that call to you, that speak a language you so understand, that say in few words a world of change, reality, and difference. For me, Our Homesick Songs was such a book.

This lyrical, music set to words tale, encouraged the reader to paint pictures, to fill in those blank spaces on a canvas that was a story that in many ways was cautionary but also celebrated the idea of hope. Big Running is a small town fishing town. It was a beautiful place inspired by the people who resided there, the beauty of nature, and the catching of fish, their life blood. Then, in what seems like an instant, the fish are gone, and the town and its residents die a little each day. The people slowly leave and those left behind struggle with their hopes and dreams of time past and the eternal belief that life will return in its circular way and that what is beloved will again be within their grasp.

Aidan and Martha, parents to Cora and Finn, struggle to stay on their treasured island. Their children, Cora and Finn are left with one parent for six months at a time, as the parents strive to make ends meet. Each child believes they control their destinies. Finn thinking through music, his accordion and a solitary music instructor, that he will devise a way to bring the fish back, while Cora decorates the abandoned houses to represent the world outside of their village. Finn wants home to be that island, while Cora desires the rest of the world. This family searches for meaning, their own meaning through music, the songs of old, and the face of reality.

This beautiful lyrical tale, blended the mystical, the lyrical, and the musical with the daily trappings of reality. It created spaces in the text that required the reader to fill in their own thoughts, their own dreams, and mostly their own desire for the earth, our little corner of it, to provide us with our home, with our peace, and with our need to treasure the earth upon which we have built the place we call home.

Thank you to Emma Hooper, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this ethereal story to this reader.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." (Carl Sagan)

2.5 stars. This simply comes down to a wrong book choice by me.

I can understand how so many love this book. The writing is unique – quiet and poetic. Unfortunately, it simply didn’t work for me - I couldn’t connect with the story or characters. The writing felt very distant and unemotional.

I encourage you to check out the many raving reviews out there for this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Emma Hooper for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper deftly and lyrically tells the story of the Conner family living in an idyllic ghost town of a fishing village, Big Running. The inhabitants have mostly moved on due to the fish leaving first under a cloud of mystery.

The parents, Aidan and Martha, take turns working elsewhere to support their two children, Cora and Finn. Eventually, the family may have to leave Big Running for a more stable way of life.

The son, Finn, stridently tries to solve the mystery of why the fish left. Working with his quirky music teacher, he thinks he has solved the mystery and can lure the fish back, allowing his family to stay in Big Running. The daughter, Cora, is busy using her imagination to lavishly decorate the abandoned homes in town. She yearns for a life on a bigger scale with more opportunities available to her.

In Our Homesick Songs, the writing is so beautiful it takes on a musical quality to pair with the underlying threads of music and wonder. This is the story of the Conners, across two generations, what draws them to that remarkable place and anchors them there. The effects of the loss of a way of life on this family are told in a memorable, mystical way, and it is relatable to anyone who has had nostalgia for what is left behind, the memories that slip right through our fingers, but also in the hope that we can recreate those memories if we hang on to what we love most.

Thank you to Simon Schuster for the invitation to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Our Homesick Songs is the story of a family and a community breaking apart. First, the fish left, and without the fish, the people left. Many moved west to work the oil sands of Alberta. The Connors tried to stay by sharing a job in Alberta. Aidan, the father, would go for a month, then Martha, the mother would go the next month, a strain for their marriage and their children. Cora and Finn remain at home in an empty village with only a few older villagers remaining. Cora uses the pages of library books to turn the empty houses into places she would like to visit someday, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands. Then, she runs away.

For Finn, the youngest, it seems obvious that if he can only bring back the fish, his sister, his parents, and his community will come back together. They are linked and he believes he can fix them, in part because he has caught a fish after they disappeared and in part inspired by folk legends told by his accordion teacher.

That folklore is where Finn looks to for solutions is a reflection of his culture. His father was a fisherman, so is he, as much as one can be after all the fish have left. HIs mother made nets and his sister plays the violin while he plays the accordion. Folklore and tradition are central to their lives.

Our Homesick Songs is a beautifully written book that demonstrates the beauty of simple language. Don’t get me wrong, I love the writers who choose the perfect word–even if it means having to look it up. I remember in “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon,” Rebecca West describes Lake Scutari and used the word “inspissation.” Because I knew her writing, I knew it would be worth my while to look up this unfamiliar word–that the word would be perfect in meaning in a way no other world could be. But I also love those writers who use words that a ten-year-old like Finn would use to make prose that reads like poetry. That is the kind of writer Emma Hooper is.

Chapters are just a few sentences long and some of them begin with “and.” There’s repetition that builds this forceful flow of words. The folkloric tradition is strong, fairy tales are not full of big words and they ask us to suspend our disbelief. Would a fourteen-year-old girl go off the wilds of Alberta to scare bears? Perhaps not. But then, can a young boy sing back the fishing industry? This is a folkloric story, a plainsong magical realism and it is beautiful and hopeful.

Our Homesick Songs will be released August 14th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Our Homesick Songs at Simon & Schuster
Emma Hooper author site
Official Our Homesick Songs playlist on Spotify

3.5 lyrically written, quietly absorbed stars

I'm not sure I've ever struggled so much between the 3 and 4 star range than I did with Our Homesick Songs.

This is the story of a family: Aiden, Martha and their children Cora and Finn and the dying fishing town of Big Running. As the town and fishing situation grow more desperate Aiden and Martha are forced to work inland and away from their children in alternating months. Their love for their town and their family never wavers, but the distance grows difficult for everyone.

Finn, the youngest child, feels desperate for his home and for his family. As houses are abandoned, neighbors move away and life as he knows it crumbles beneath him this desperation only grows. Finn seeks solace in his accordion teacher Mrs.Callaghan's stories, songs and tales.

This novel is steeped in magical realism, lyrical writing and quiet contemplation. Vivid detail and attention is given to the environment of Big Running. At first, I struggled to connect to this story and these characters but as I read on I realized I'd gotten the entire thing wrong. Aiden, Martha, Cora and Finn weren't the characters we were supposed to be connecting to. Hooper was much too clever for that - the environment, the town, hope and desperation were the characters driving this story.

Music plays an incredible role here and that is evident not only in writing style but in the content of the story. There are songs that date back centuries for this village that are discussed and contemplated over. These are melancholy songs, happy songs, sad songs, songs for lost loved ones, lost hopes and found dreams - they are homesick songs.

Because everyone did. Everyone believed, everyone knew, that mermaids were the sea-dead, singing their love back to you. If it wasn't too loud with rain or waves, you could hear them in the wind, most nights.

This switches between two time periods - the "present" (what we are given as to be happening now, but is actually 1993) and the past showing us the back story of Martha and Aiden. I found their love story to be effortlessly charming and heart warming. I really enjoyed being a part of their struggles and triumphs and that proposal! *swooning*

In the end, this looses 1.5 stars for me because the stylistic choices Hooper made were not my personal favorite. The conversations were a bit choppy for me and there was not a lot of distinguishing between conversation and story progression. It was a very simplistic style format that didn't speak to me personally, but I think could appeal to someone who maybe has a bit more literary prowess than I do!

I did however, decide to round up instead of down on this one because the last page really spoke to me. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars but upon reading the last word I knew it would be an injustice to rate down. While there were some things that weren't my personal cup of tea and family sagas are not normally what I'm drawn to I think anyone with an appreciation for language would enjoy this.

Finn lifted his accordion and stepped into the water, feet cold on wet stone. He walked out through the low waves and the others followed until they were all up to their knees. OK, said Finn,

and he took a deep breath
and Aiden took a deep breath
and Martha held out the phone
and Sophie lifted her beater
and Richard put his mouth to his horn
and Mrs.Callaghan pulled open her bellows
and Cora lifted her bow
and the stars shone down
and the green lights shone up
and the flags pulled and pulled in the wind
and all around them in the water,
the water,
the water

was dark and empty and waiting.

ready.

I completed this as a Traveling Sisters read.

This book (although well written) seemed a bit slow and sluggish. I couldn't find myself interested in how it ended but pushed through to the end anyway.

Our Homesick Songs was so beautiful — beautifully written and a beautiful playful depiction of human emotions in the face of difficult times. The story focuses on a family living in a very small dying community in Newfoundland. There are two intertwined timelines. In the 1970s, we see Martha and Aidan in their teens, finding each other as they survive difficult family situations. In the early 1990s, Martha and Aidan are parents to 14 year old Cora and 11 year old Finn. The fisheries have collapsed and Martha and Aidan take turns flying out to Alberta to work in resource camps. Meanwhile, the village is dying and Cora and Finn are the only children left. Bleak, I know. And it gets bleaker but I don’t want to give any spoilers. But what made this a 5 star read was the playful, ever slightly surreal feel of the story. It’s hard to describe, but Hooper infuses the story with music, poetry and nature in a way that makes the hard times bearable. None of it is flowery or overwrought. It’s simple, hard hitting and beautiful. I loved the characters and the story. One of my favourite books of the year. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.