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A Novel
by Emma Hooper
Eighty-two-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Canada eastward to the coast.
Her husband Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. I will try to remember to come back, Etta writes to him. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war. He understands. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in and Otto struggles to keep them at bay.
Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar. Russell insists on finding Etta, wherever she's gone. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life.
As Etta walks further toward the ocean, accompanied by a coyote named James, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur. Rocking back and forth with the pull of the waves, Etta and Otto and Russell and James moves from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty burnt past of hunger, war, passion, and hope; from trying to remember to trying to forget; and inspires each of its characters to visit the sites they've longed to see and say the things they've longed to say. This is dazzling literary fiction about the rediscovery and care of the soul, and the idea it's never too late for a great adventure.
BookBrowse Review
"Two major plot lines run throughout Etta and Otto and Russell and James: In the first we learn about the characters' lives, actions and relationships before and during the years of WWII; in the second we follow the 82-year-old Etta as she walks the length of Canada while increasingly impacted by her encroaching Alzheimer's disease. First-time author Emma Hooper does a lot of things quite well with her debut: Each story's premise is intriguing; her characters are well-drawn and raise sympathy with her readers; and her writing is out and out gorgeous – a real joy to read. However, in the long run the book simply didn't work for me. I felt like I never came to understand the characters, in particular missing their motivations for some of the more unusual actions they take. There were also a number of plot elements included in the novel that didn't seem to tie into anything and I couldn't figure out what they were meant to convey or why they were included. I turned the last page feeling oddly dissatisfied with the novel, as if I'd missed something buried within its pages or didn't understand something about it. I did enjoy Hooper's writing and look forward to her next work, but overall I thought this one didn't hang together as well as it could have." - Kim Kovacs
Other Review
"Starred Review. Hooper, with great insight, explores the interactions and connections between spouses and friends—the rivalries, the camaraderie, the joys and tragedies—and reveals the extraordinary lengths to which people will go in the name of love. " - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Debut novelist Hooper's spare, evocative prose dips in and out of reality and travels between past and present... This is a quietly powerful story whose dreamlike quality lingers long after the last page is turned." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. A masterful near homage to Pilgrim's Progress: souls redeemed through struggle." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Drawing on wisdom and whimsy of astonishing grace and maturity, Hooper has written an irresistibly enchanting debut novel that explores mysteries of love old and new, the loyalty of animals and dependency of humans, the horrors of war and perils of loneliness, and the tenacity of time and fragility of memory." - Booklist
This information about Etta and Otto and Russell and James was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
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