Working Waterfront

Island quarry swimming as art

This book includes a quick nod to quarry history, with pictures of some quarrying era artifacts illustrating the once-industrial setting, when rock was removed to be used primarily as building material. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Sydney Lea deals with demons

George does most of the narrating, but Lea lets other characters take a chapter here and there to add perspective on the story. Among the most striking: the soliloquy of the man who murdered his parents and a short letter written from Vietnam by his friends Evan and Mattie’s son Tommy. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island as banishment, not retreat

So the questions driving the plot are: What are the kids doing there? Is Grunewald an enemy or a friend? Are the island overseers benefactors or manipulators? Either way, to what purpose? SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Historical novel unveils Native life

The Berry Pickers By Amanda Peters (Catapault, 2023) Amanda Peters has Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry and lives in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. She was winner in 2021 of an Indigenous Voices Award. The Berry Pickers was her first published book (2023), with a book of short stories just… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Another look at the midwife’s story

She asserts that “roughly 75 percent of what happens on these pages closely follows the historical record.” But she emphatically reminds us the book is “inspired by real events as opposed to being based on them.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Mystery hidden in island fog

Suspicions fall on Jon, who has an uneasy relationship with his father, not to mention a serious drinking problem. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Writing prompts personal revelations

It's impossible to not be moved by someone opening up this way, and the only way it can fail is when it is overwrought, pretentious, or over-written. There are a few pieces that slide into these sins, but the bulk are honest in their aim. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Climbing class cliffs is complicated

The Cliffs starts out with a gothic feel, then steadily shifts its footing to a fairly typical contemporary depiction of the main character’s chaotic emotional life. The plot moves along pretty well overall, the characters are mainly well-drawn... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Beware of explaining islands to islanders

A central conflict of the novel is Mari’s desire to farm a few acres of Harry’s family's land, something his lawyer sister dismisses as not right for the island. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Susan Webster and Stuart Kestenbaum harmonize

Kestenbaum has noted a sense of mortality in some of these poems. Two pieces titled “Eternity” address the end of life, “some pa/rt of me adrift/gone floating o/ver this sweet/and sad world." SEE MORE