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    Our Homesick Songs
    Our Homesick Songs
    Our Homesick Songs
    Ebook345 pages4 hours

    Our Homesick Songs

    By Emma Hooper

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From Emma Hooper, acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,” comes a “haunting fable about the transformative power of hope” (Booklist, starred review) in a charming and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction.

    The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running; after the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears they’ll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens.

    Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Running’s local flora and fauna, eleven-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish. Aided by his reclusive music instructor Mrs. Callaghan, Finn thinks he may have discovered a way to find the fish, and in turn, save the only home he’s ever known. While Finn schemes, his sister Cora spends her days decorating the abandoned houses in Big Running with global flair—the baker’s home becomes Italy; the mailman’s, Britain. But it’s clear she’s desperate for a bigger life beyond the shores of her small town. As the streets of Big Running continue to empty Cora takes matters—and her family’s shared destinies—into her own hands.

    In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper paints a gorgeous portrait of the Connor family, brilliantly weaving together four different stories and two generations of Connors, full of wonder and hope. Told in Hooper’s signature ethereal style, “this delicate elegy for a dying way of life crescendos into a love song binding family members across the waters” (Kirkus Reviews).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateAug 14, 2018
    ISBN9781501124525
    Author

    Emma Hooper

    Raised in Alberta, Canada, Emma Hooper brought her love of music and literature to the UK, where she received a doctorate in Musico-Literary studies at the University of East-Anglia and currently lectures at Bath Spa University. A musician, Emma performs as the solo artist Waitress for the Bees and plays with a number of bands. She lives in Bath, UK, but goes home to Canada to cross-country ski whenever she can. She is the author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James and Our Homesick Songs.

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    Reviews for Our Homesick Songs

    4/5

    44 ratings8 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This just wasn't the right book for me. I was marginally more interested in the story of Finn and Cora than that of their parents, but ultimately I didn't connect with this book and I abandoned it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      4.5 "So we're learning homesick songs? All songs are homesick songs, Finn. Even the happy ones? Especially the happy ones.Mermaids, music, folktales and a disappearing way of life. When the cod disappeared from the New Foundland fishing waters, a family tries to do everything they can to hold on to their way of life. So many have left, so many houses are empty, the library boat left unmanned. For young Finn, aged eleven, the thought is unbearable, and he comes up with many different plans to try to keep his family in place. His sister, fifteen has her own plans and his parents take turns, monthly flying to the mainland to work.I wish I could adequately explain how different this authors writing is,so lyrical, and how tenderly she portrays her characters. It is written very much as a fable, as a warning of how we are damaging our world, while reminding us that there are real people involved. A way of life that many had followed for generations, how important are the stories passed on that will also end when the way of life ends. Such loss. Unbearable. Yet, the story ends on a hopeful note.
    • 5/5
      I adored Emma Hooper's first novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James, which I read in 24 hours, and which had me in tears. I finished my review with the words "Read it."So I was super excited to read Hooper's new novel Our Homesick Songs. I had high expectations and was not disappointed. I was enchanted by the writing. The story is set in a small Newfoundland fishing village suffering from the impact of over-fishing by commercial ships that are "big as bergs; monster-big" and able to hold "a whole sea" of fish. Their livelihood over, the villagers leave, going West for jobs on mainland Canada.The Connor family is hanging on. The parents Aiden and Martha share alternating monthly shifts working inland where they are surrounded by concrete, steel, and trucks, the light and noise never-ending. Martha asks a co-worker what it was like "here, before" and he tells her, "There were only trees."Daughter Cora longs to leave the island for a 'normal' life packed with other children. She turns the empty houses into travel destinations. Son Finn loves his home and feels at one with the land. He carries his accordion with him, even on the boat, playing traditional Newfoundland jigs and reels and airs to the open seas and clouded skies around him. He endeavors to bring back the fish, wondering if any are left in the oceans anywhere, and hoping the community will return.The Connor parents work inland with other displaced workers. They are lonely and isolated, forever separated, seeing each other only in passing as they change places at the ferry every month. During their month home, the parents sing less. They return tired and depressed. The stress and distance wear on their marriage.Like Hooper's first novel, there is a touch of magical realism and the characters go on journeys both physical and internal. The parent's charming backstory is sweet and magical, their courting taking place on boats at sea in the night, and includes a treacherous sea journey.The history behind the novel caught my interest: the loss of the cod which was the basis of an entire way of life. A quick Internet search and I learned how overfishing decimated the cod, forcing the Canadian government to enact the 1992 moratorium on cod fishing that left 35,000 Newfoundlanders out of work. The impact on community and family life is portrayed in Our Homesick Songs.Newfoundland is central to the novel, its rocky shores and waters and snow and ice and bergs vividly described. And so is the Celtic music of Newfoundland, brought by the Irish. Social gatherings conclude with music. Finn travels across the water to his music lessons. His elderly teacher Mrs. Callaghan captures his imagination with strange stories about snakes becoming fish and shipwrecks harboring the fish. She tells him that the songs were how the sailors and explorers remembered their homes. They are all homesick songs, even the happy ones, she says. When Finn cannot sleep at night, he calls his teacher and she tells him stories.One song that reoccurs is The Water is Wide, an ancient song from Great Britain, which Aidan sings early in the novel. Others include the love song She's Like the Swallow and fiddle tunes Finn plays such as The Newfoundland Black Bear and The Cotton Grass Air, The Fish of the Sea."No, the dead can't sing, Aidan, that's why the living have to."Aiden has a coffee cup that reads "Squidjiggingground" which is also the name of a song by Arthur Scammell about squid fishermen. The lyrics give a sense of the life that has been lost, the camaraderie and community.Oh this is the place where the fishermen gatherOil-skins and boots and the Cape hands batten down;All sizes of figures with squid lines and jiggers,They congregate here on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.Some are workin' their jiggers, while others are yarnin',There's some standin' up and there's more lyin' down;While all kinds of fun, jokes, and drinks are begun,As they wait for the squid on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.The story feels like a tale told by Finn's accordion teacher, a fairy tale with magic feathers and mermaids singing. And like most folk tales, the underlying reality is terrifyingly real. I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
    • 4/5
      I loved Ms. Hooper's first book, Etta and Otto and Russell and James, and I enjoyed this one, too. This novel tells about the collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland, and the closing down of several small villages as people move away to find work.Ten-year-old Finn Connor and his 14-year-old sister, Cora, are members of the last family in their town. Their parents, Martha and Aiden, work in Alberta ; each parent spends one month away and one month home with the children. Cora dreams of a better life, and decorates abandoned houses in the styles of countries she'll never get to visit. Finn tries to lure the fish back using old folk stories and home remedies. Martha and Aiden struggle to keep the family afloat, and to remain loyal to each other while living apart. The story is beautifully told, incorporating legends and music and multiple points of view. It gives the reader a better understanding of what lurks behind the headlines about economic changes.
    • 4/5
      Atmospheric quiet northern tale. Very human.
    • 2/5
      I think it must be me. This book came very highly recommended to me. I just could not engage. The basic plot line was interesting, a declining fishing community in Newfoundland and its residents and traditions. It jumped around in a way that required too much attention to follow. Oh well.
    • 5/5
      I came across this book by chance in a sale and purchased it though I wasn’t previously familiar with the author.This is a unique book, different from any others I have read. It is poetic, in fact in places so poetic and imprecise that I can’t really fathom what is going on, what the author is trying to tell us, since I require concrete, explicit explanations if I’m to understand anything fully.The story tells of a family living by the coast of Newfoundland in 1992/3 – Aidan and Martha and their children, ten year-old Finn and fourteen year-old Cora. Their lives are dominated by the sea; there are stormy nights and singing mermaids.The singing of the mermaids bring out thousands of cod.But the fish disappear; Finn used to count the lights of the fishing-boats but soon they vanish too.Interspersed with accounts of what is happening to the family in the 1990s are sections telling us of Aidan and Martha in their youth and Martha’s three sisters.Martha’s surname is Murphy, she was thirteen when both her parents drowned. Aidan’s surname is Connor, and it is said that all Connors are cheats. With surnames like Murphy and Connor the family must have had Irish forebears.People are leaving their homes. Cora takes over these deserted houses and turns each of them into a country, decorating them appropriately. Aidan and Martha leave too for short periods, taking turns in doing so, perhaps working away from home.The library has also been abandoned and the children are able to use it freely: they carefully register the books they borrow.They all sing and play musical instruments; Finn is taking accordion lessons from Mrs Callaghan who lives alone across the sound from them; he has to row out to her, which is often dangerous because of the stormy weather.At one point Cora runs away. The family is distraught and do what they can to find her, of course. I never found out why Cora left, perhaps just to seek adventure.This is a very readable, enjoyable book about this imaginative, musical, creative family. I would recommend it to other such imaginative souls, in fact to everyone.
    • 5/5
      Amazing writing! The world is falling apart around this Newfoundland family because the cod are gone, but the narrative does not feel hopeless. Instead, there is an easy coast calm, a peace, an optimism that is unique to that part of the country and conveyed in the style of writing. I don't really know what it is about the style, but it was the writing that kept me in the story, more than the story itself. It is the story of a family battered by many storms but still enduring. There is a touch of whimsy because of the children's imagination and tenacity. The parents are disconnected from their childhood selves as only adulthood can make one not child-like, but their backstory is also charming. A delightful sorrowful read.

    Book preview

    Our Homesick Songs - Emma Hooper

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