![]() The novel opens with a story, and a song is at the heart of it. She focuses on the people, their stories, and their songs. We’re in the early 1970s now, and industrial-scale fishing is well under way.Įmma Hooper doesn’t tell it like this. And what’s that heaving of the swell under the girl’s rowing boat? The whales coming, out of season? No, it’s one of those big ‘draggers’. Even in the earlier time-line, so far covering five years, the nets become less full every year. The later time-line has two threads itself, 1992, when there are only a handful of families left and 24 empty houses, and 1993 which, at first, has only covered a single event as the Connor family moves out too. It isn’t the fault of the hardworking men and women, living close to the edge, ‘in-boat’ for days and nights on end, or on the shore, worrying, making nets, doing all the things that wives do in these communities. These are little fishing communities in Newfoundland, and then they’re not, because there are no fish left. Emma Hooper is worrying away at two time-lines, one going from the late 1960s to the early 70s and the other the early 1990s. ![]() These are the little people being buffeted by global forces much bigger than they are. ![]() Life used to be that way, the narrative seems to be insisting, but even then we should have seen how it was all slipping away from us. The title is perfect for this novel’s mood of nostalgic wistfulness. ![]()
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