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Loading... Be Still the Waterby Karen Emilson
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A beautifully written drama about a family of Icelandic immigrants, Be Still the Water brought something new to the genre of historical fiction. There was a unique juxtaposition of an unreliable narrator, being that she's an old, ailing woman who seems to have a to-be-explained memory problem, with her ability to mentally transport back in time and see everything exactly as it transpired. Good or bad, the characters all feel genuine, and the setting feels very realistic and true to life as an immigrant back in the early 1900s. As she relives the past to find out what happened to her sister Freyja, we watch the family goes through trials and secrets unveiled, as the central character experiences trauma and falls in and out of love, and as the whole community strives for a better future for their children. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review. Set in the early half of the 20th century, this is the story of an Icelandic immigrant girl and her family at a homestead farm on the east shores of Lake Manitoba. The story covers the conditions prairie pioneers faced. Emilson describes the neighbours and all the hardships and the joys of the small close-knit ethnic community along with the secrets and sacrifices of friends and family members. Throughout the book the ever-present lake is featured. As a friend, the lake provides fish to eat and a means of travel out of the community but also as a foe it floods the farmland and claims the lives of young men during storms and times of thin ice.
Set in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes.
From the award-winning author of "Where Children Run" comes a smoldering tale, set in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba."Be Still the Water" brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson family-immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes. At the heart of the novel is dutiful Asta, the middle daughter who loves the local mill owner's son, but the devastating secret they share drives a wedge between them, complicating their love for decades.When Asta's younger sister goes missing, she embarks on a quest to find her and bring her home. She tells the heartbreaking tale some seventy years later, while on her deathbed, finally discovering the truth of what happened on those fateful days that set the course for her life and the lives of everyone she loved.Loosely inspired by area events, this is an emotional, slow-burning story of family love and sacrifice, of secrets revealed and promises broken-told in the spirit of the Icelandic Sagas.- Shortlisted for the 2016 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction- IPPY 2017 Silver Medalist- 2017 Readers Favorite Silver Medalist No library descriptions found. |
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We get to know Asta well. The descriptive language provides a sense of place. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book, but the device is not as effective in the second, where Asta becomes more unreliable. I liked the pithy sayings, taken from Icelandic sagas, that introduce each chapter, and we learn about Icelandic customs. There is a thread of mystery in it, but it is a slowly developing storyline about the lives of a family living in a farming and fishing community. The tone is mostly sad or tragic, with a few bright spots. I can say I liked it, and the historical part is believable, but I felt the family story did not quite gel into a cohesive whole.
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