By Larissa Page
It’s 1992 and the fish have become scarce in the waters around Big Running and Little Running, Newfoundland, where the people have fished and relied on the water for their livelihood for generations. With the fish gone, the people are leaving too. The communities were small to begin with, but as more and more families move out west to find work, abandoning their homes and their previous lives, the Conners become one of the only families remaining. Finn, age 10, and his sister Cora, 14, cling to their former lives as their family starts to pull apart after their parents decide to alternate a month at a time working out west. When Cora goes missing, Finn is desperate to bring the fish back to the waters around the Runnings in an effort to bring his family back together.
This story alternates timelines and points of view. Mostly centred on Finn and the present day of 1992–1993, when his family is falling apart, it also tells the story of 20 years earlier when his parents fell in love, and his family was first formed. From 1969 to 1993 we see families being pulled apart and coming together, sticking to home and leaving home for new opportunities, building new relationships and coming back to old ones.
This novel was heartbreaking but never made me feel hopeless; it was a story I really enjoyed reading. Finn was a well-written child character. I felt his pain and confusion about the changes that were happening that he couldn’t fully understand, and his drive and need to do what he could to help. I also felt the sisterly love Cora had for Finn and what she did to try to improve his life without many other people around. They both had so much outside of their control and they both tried in their own ways to control what they could.
I also really enjoyed the back story of Finn’s parents; it may have been my favourite part of the whole book. This story linked up a bit with their present day situation, which I thought was well done. This gave the story aspects of a love story, but ultimately it was the love story of a family; their love for each other, their family ties, their love for a community.
I didn’t know how their story would end, and with any story of a family, I still don’t really, but I was more than happy to be drawn back into the story every time. The events of the novel were sad and worrisome without being too tough or too traumatic for me as a reader. As mentioned, it was both heartbreaking and hopeful, and it is a novel I will be putting on my keeper shelf and recommending to friends to read.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.