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.

I wanted to like this one as I love Emma Hooper but it was so slow-moving and I lost interest halfway though. It wasn’t for me but I’m sure others will enjoy it.

Our Homesick Songs is a beautifully written book. It reads like a song or a dream; it's lyrical and slow and methodical and just plain lovely.

It tells the story of the Connor family who lives in a remote fishing town called Big Running. It's a quiet life, full of love and music and simple things. As time goes by, though, and the fish disappear from the ocean, more and more villagers leave to find work other places, leaving the Connors as one of the last remaining families there. Martha and Aiden, the parents, take turns for a month stretch at a time, going mainland to work while the other stays at home with their children, Finn & Cora. This time and distance create fractures and while the family begins to unravel and faces the reality of having to leave Big Running, Cora intends to start a better life and Finn desperately tries to find a way to bring the fish back so that they can all stay in Big Running and be happy together.

There are a couple of different stories being told here - the past, where Martha and Aiden first meet and fall in love - and the present, focusing more on the children and their lives. I found each to be equally engrossing and it was an effective way to get to know all of the characters on a deeper level.

I'm not sure if this book will be for everyone, especially for the person who isn't willing to read a book that's been written in a nontraditional way. But for those who have an open mind, I think this will be something really special.

I will definitely be reading more from Emma Hooper in the future - in fact, I can't wait to read more.

I received this ARC as a courtesy from NetGalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Come all ye young sailors and listen to me,
I’ll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Then blow ye winds westerly, westerly blow,
We’re bound to the south’ard, So steady she goes.
[old shanty song] " Fish of the Sea", verse 1”

HISTORICAL BACKSTORY
Canada's 500-year-old cod-fishing industry ground to a halt in 1992 when decades of over-fishing of the Northern cod had reduced the species to dangerous levels. In an attempt to allow the cod stocks to rebuild, Canada placed a cod fishing moratorium along its east coast. Overnight, families living on the coastlines of Newfoundland faced unemployment and the end of generations of family fishing heritage. Most took part in a mass migration to the mainland provinces of Canada to support their families.

When the first fisherman settled Newfoundland, they brought a rich tradition of music with them.
"They sang shanties as they worked and shared ballads and tunes at the end of the day. Over time, the settlers and their descendants reworked the old music and created new songs to tell their own stories. Newfoundland music spoke of work, politics, humour, fear, hope, tragedy and the ebb and flow of day-to-day existence. . ." - (Newfoundland Heritage)

FICTION
Our Homesick Songs, set on the east coast of Newfoundland in a small fishing village of Big Running, features the Aiden and Martha Connors family. It's 1993. A year ago, the last Northern cod was pulled from their bay. Their fishing boat, like that of their neighbors, sits idle at dock. The government sends welfare checks, but these people are proud and productive. One by one, families abandon their homes and head for the Canadian mainland for work in the oil and gas fields. They leave with a suitcase and their musical instruments leaving behind their identity, their music and their dreams.

As we meet the Connors family, Aiden and Martha are sharing a heartbreaking decision with their children, ten-year old, Finn, and fourteen-year old, Cora. It's time to go where there is work. They aren't ready to uproot their lives so they will share a job; one parent will leave for a month and one will stay with the children. Every thirty days, they will switch places.

As difficult as it is for the parents, the decision is harder on the children. Alone, the last family, Cora and Finn must use their imagination to fill their days. Finn, with sea water in his veins, dreams of ways to restore fishing to the village and Cora establishes her own world creating artwork in the abandoned houses that take her around the world. When all the houses have been turned into countries, she runs away from home with a plan.

"Finn, I want to show you something. [Inside the Ryan house] everything was bright yellow and pink and blue and green and red. . . There were pieces of green card cut into cactus shapes up the sides of the sofa and fireplace. . . It's Mexico, said Cora!"

As we track that first year of the family split across Canada, the story shifts back and forth with the tide to the 1970's. Back when the cod were plentiful and Aiden Connors spent long nights fishing on his boat singing shanties. Back when the orphaned Martha Murphy sat alone on the shore for years, after her sisters had gone to sleep, crafting fishing net and listening to the mermaid sing far out on the dark sea.

"Mermaids need to sing. Sad songs. homesick songs. And the only one that who could hear it was a lonely orphaned girl. But tying knots and listening to the mermaid sing made her feel better." Until the day she discovers that the mermaid singing is Aidan and she marries him.

Sometimes, aged Mrs. Callaghan (my favorite character), Finn's accordion teacher and the community's matriarch, takes the story even further back with song lyrics crafted by ancient mariners and fables of old Ireland.

The novel itself, moves very slowly, with gaps and pauses in the sometimes long dialogues. It's as though the sea winds blow away any unnecessary words. During that first year apart, the lonely separation is hard on Aiden and Martha and they each stumble against their marriage vows. Cora sets out to see the world with a secret plan to help the family. Finn, bless his little heart, is convinced that pulling the community together in song and music will bring back the fish and bring back the boats.

The ending is sweet if not long in coming.

Good reading on a rainy day.

This was a complete miss for me, which was disappointing because the premise and this small fishing village appealed to me a lot. The characters were interesting, but the plot was a little too meandering for me. I also found the writing to be jarring and choppy, which is not my preferred style.

At page 156, I decided this book just wasn’t for me. I did not care for the juvenile style of writing. I checked to see if perhaps it was a YA book, but it was not. The characters felt flat, I was confused about the plot and I couldn’t engage - found my brain wandering. I don't want to hurt the author's feelings by posting such a negative online review so I didn't. Hope you understand. Thank you for providing the opportunity to read it.

Our Homesick Songs was a total miss for me. I couldn't connect winthe story at all. I tried to muster interest in the characters and it didn't happen. I found nothing relatable in the narrative.

What a wonderful discovery Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper was.   With beautiful writing, a fantastic setting, a lovely family story, and some interesting learnings this one delivered everything I most enjoy about reading.

Set in the isolated fishing village of Big Running the story alternated between the late 60's/early 70's, and the early 90's.     In the earlier period we meet teenagers Martha Murphy and Aidan Connor.    We learn something of their backstories, how they meet and fall in love.   In the 90's, when they are now parents to Cora 14, and Finn 10, times are tough for the family and for the entire village.    Emma Hooper does an excellent job of painting the picture of a small fishing village in decline.   The fish have all vanished taking with them the residents livelihoods and any hopes of a future at Big Running.   The already small number of residents dwindles week by week as residents make the decion to leave.     This story is essentially about the struggle to keep the family in tact, it's about loneliness and about hope.     I loved the resourcefulness shown by both Cora and Finn and the way they each tried to look after the other.    I empathised with Aidan & Martha as the strain of living apart created an unhealthy distance between them and I enjoyed the inclusion of the folklore and stories of the mermaid songs.   As always, I love it when a work of fiction has me Googling and in this case I learnt much about the Canadian Government resettlements of tiny Newfoundland fishing villages.

All in all a highly enjoyable and entertaining read.     My thanks to Emma Hooper, the publishers Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful and enthralling book! I can say it gave a wonderful reading experience and I was fascinated by both the plot and the development of the characters.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC

I wanted to like this book so much. The premise sounded both interesting and unique. In execution, however, he story itself was just too unique for me to be fully engaged with.

From the beginning, I had a hard time with the lack of quotation marks to indicate speech. This is usually not a problem for me in other stories that omit quotation marks, but because multiple characters were speaking close together, I often lost track of who was speaking a specific line.

I just never got the feeling of being “swept up” in the story. I gave it longer than I usually do, because again, the premise was intriguing. However, at 30% read, I realized I didn’t care about the characters like I should and I honestly wasn’t sure what exactly was happening in the story.

I do think this would be an incredible read for someone who enjoys more experimental, whimsical storytelling. Besides my quation mark issue, the writing was flowing and somehow both poetic and straightforward at the same time. This is simply a case of not the right book for me.

What a great book! It was warm, touching, and heartbreaking all at the same time.
I loved the setting of the story which is a small island off the coast of New Foundland Canada.
The characters were all well developed and interesting to read about. The story takes you back to another time almost even though most of it is only set 25 years ago.
Great family story... the writing made me feel like I was right there with them.
Thanks to netgalley.com and the publisher for the ARC.
I highly recommend this book!

Destined to become a Canlit classic!
In her novel, “Our Homesick Songs”, Emma Hooper has captured the strength and perseverance of the inhabitants of Newfoundland's former fishing outports. Hooper's descriptions of the harsh ruggedness of the landscape, the danger and precariousness of cod fishing from a dory, along with the tenacity of the residents in their attempt to survive change are true to life. She expertly weaves the Newfoundland traditions of oral folklore and music throughout her tale of one family's struggle to avoid resettling from an otherwise abandoned outport.
If you are familiar with the history of Newfoundland and Smallwood's Fisheries Household Resettlement Program you will be able to enjoy Hooper's description of how the last family remaining in such an outport struggles to survive. Her tale switches seamlessly between generations, characters and time to bring us a story of love and hope.
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quiet writing, seemingly simple language yet so much more always gets me

“Out on the dark green night water, said Finn, there was a mermaid. And, because mermaids need to, it sang. Sad songs, homesick songs. Night after night, a hundred thousand, fish. And the only one who could hear it was a girl. .......and it got louder and louder until it was louder than the wind, until...Until she saw it wasn’t a mermaid. It was Dad. It was our dad. Singing. .....And then? asked Cora. And then everything, said Finn.”

This is a story of a place, the fishing village called Big Running, in Newfoundland, almost desolate now that the fish are gone. This is a story of a fragile family, the Connor family in crisis, almost broken by how their lives have changed now that the fish are gone. There’s sadness over the impending loss of the only home they have known when the fish are gone and the people begin to leave. But there’s alway music - the songs, mermaids perhaps, but magic in the songs no matter who is singing or playing them, and mostly the hope of ten year old Finn who wants to stay and the hope of his fourteen year old sister, Cora, who wants to leave that made this such a beautiful story.

The story moves back and forth in time from the present of 1992 to the early 1970’s when Martha and Aiden met in the time when the fish were plentiful. Even then, there is sorrow and loss of another kind - those lost at sea and those who left. This novel appears to be based on the collapse of the cod fishing industry in Newfoundland in 1992 when thousands of people lost work and the only way of life they knew. It reflects the impact on this family which is reflective I would think of how so many people were affected. Beautiful, thought provoking, and one I’ll remember.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss and NetGalley.

Lives wrapped around seafaring and fishing are always precarious; death arrives in many forms when least expected. In this tale of the slow disappearance of small towns in Newfoundland, economic death follows on the heels of changing social conditions. Families who spent generations supporting themselves by fishing now find they must leave and get factory work inland, far from the coast they know so well. OUR HOMESICK SONGS tells a quiet tale of two timelines, one family and the music that helps them find solutions to their plight. I had difficulty losing myself in this story. It just didn’t engage me enough and it could have been the novel way the author literally used words and punctuation. I found I often needed to back up and re-read sections to follow the tale; my mind had wandered while my eyes kept reading. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

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

“O love is handsome and love is fine,
And love's a jewel when it's first new,
But love grows old then waxes cold,
And fades away like morning dew.”
--The Water is Wide, Eva Cassidy (and others) Songwriters: Unknown

As this story begins, it is 1993 in Newfoundland, Canada, then slips quickly back to 1992, with a ten-year-old Finn hopping on the rocks covered in orange, yellow and green lichen, and up ahead of him is his fourteen-year-old sister Cora. Returning from school, although they are home schooled, this is one of their once-a-month school days where they share a communal activity with the other home-schooled children.

Most of the homes around them had been abandoned, already. The fish have disappeared, followed by most of the fishermen who had previously fished as an occupation. They have had to leave Big Running, a very close and interdependent neighborhood, where the word neighbor means someone you have known most, if not all, of your life and interact with somewhat daily.

That night, Finn and Cora are told that Aidan, their father, will be leaving for mainland Canada, where he will be working alternate months for a company there, switching places with Martha, their mother so that they will always have a parent there. Just for a short time, they say, just until the fishing picks back up there again. Just until life returns to normal again.

Cora begins to reimagine and transform the interiors of the abandoned houses, each with a different, fantastical theme, a different country.

And then Cora leaves, too, leaving without a trace of a goodbye.

Finn, feeling the loss, feeling lost and grieving, all these changes in his family and the loss of all those who have moved away, his concern for those few who have stayed like Mrs. Callaghan. He plots and plans, and schemes and dreams of ways to lure Cora - and the fish - back where they belong.

In order to visit Mrs. Callaghan, who is his accordion teacher, Finn must go by way of sailing his small boat to Little Running, where she not only instructs him in his lessons, but shares with him her stories about fish and snakes and sailors. She teaches him the old songs that sailors sang to remember home. These homesick songs offer him comfort and inspiration, as does his growing knowledge of the local environment. In there, somewhere, he believes is the key to returning his home and family to their former way of life, the way they were.

Music, lyrics, float through these pages like the words of a song on the wind, including ‘The Water is Wide’, an old folk song of Scottish origin with lyrics tied to another version of this folk song, ‘O Waly, Waly,’ and other folk songs such as ’She’s Like the Swallow,’ ‘The Newfoundland Black Bear,’ and others as Finn serenades and woos the sea to lure the fish home.

The loss of the cod that were the way of life for five centuries of fishermen in Newfoundland, and undoubtedly elsewhere, when the Canadian government shut down the industry in 1992 for an indefinite period. This story is based on the imagined impact that shutdown had on Newfoundland and its people.

Mermaids, songs of mermaids, are part of the story of Finn’s parents courtship, which sets the tone for this magical story with touches of magical realism and dustings of an ethereal wistfulness that whispers of yearning to break free of the bonds of the past, and a longing to recreate the essence of our best memories lost to the past.


Pub Date: 14 AUG 2018



Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster

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 gather
Oil-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.

Devastated by the loss of the fishing industry, the folks of the small Newfoundland village of Big Running gradually abandoned their homes to find work elsewhere. The Connors, however, have hung on, trying to wait for the cod to return to their waters. Our Homesick Songs is a beautiful tale of tradition, the power of songs, and mythic family stories. Loved it.

The above paragraph is from a short mention I made of this book on my other blog, and I intended to write a longer review here, but really, that paragraph encapsulates my feelings.

The writing style is a little unusual, but it doesn't take long to adjust and become part of the story. Hooper's style works beautifully, almost melodically. The characters are wonderful--all of them, but Finn and Cora are especially inspiring for their faith in a future they go about working for in different ways.

I savored the experience of reading this magical and ultimately hopeful tale of a vanishing way of life and the struggles to hold on. It is one of my favorite books this year.

Highly Recommended.

Read in May; blog review scheduled for July 31.

NetGalley/Simon & Schuster
Literary Fiction. August 14, 2018. Print length: 336 pages.

This is an absolutely delightful tale of a young boy who thinks up a plan to save his family and community. Newfoundland 1992. The fish on which the small community depends have been overfished and have disappeared – in fact in that year the Canadian government stopped all cod fishing off the Newfoundland coast. No longer able to make a living, one by one the local families are forced to move away. 10 year old Finn’s parents take it in turns to go away to work, doing a month each, then coming home to take care of Finn and his sister. Such a disrupted and disruptive life can’t continue – it’s up to Finn to find a way to get the fish back. It’s beautifully gentle story, moving, lyrical, perhaps a little sentimental at times, but a thoroughly absorbing read which I very much enjoyed, an evocative and atmospheric novel about family, love and forgiveness.

this novel presents an interesting portrait of a family/family life...add to a beach/summer book list

A nostalgic story of family and change and how differently people react to it. Rooted in tradition and music, it is a lovely and touching story that crosses generations of siblings in a tiny Newfoundland fishing island. Beautiful.