Safe from the Sea

September 15, 2010

In this deeply moving, powerfully realized debut novel, an estranged father and son find reconciliation in the final week of the father's life. Under the pressure of a terminal illness, the two finally speak honestly about their dreams, regrets, and choices. Setting his book almost entirely in the father's ramshackle cabin near Duluth, MN, Geye tackles the subjects of death, dying, and living with admirable insight and courage. Olaf, the father, is a curmudgeonly, headstrong former ship's captain who was one of three survivors from a massive coal freighter that sank on Lake Superior. Olaf lost many close friends and was haunted for the rest of his life by the memory of one friend he felt he could have saved. This event had catastrophic repercussions for his young family. VERDICT Geye engages the complexities of family dynamics skillfully and handles especially well the kind of family grudges and misunderstandings that can cripple relationships for decades, as they do here. Inspiring, wise, and enthusiastically recommended for all readers.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2010
This finely crafted first novel takes place in the wooded areas around a small lake north of Duluth and in the tempestuous waters of Lake Superior. The history of the family at the center of the novel, the Torrs, encompasses both areas and is a prolonged story of resentment and recrimination. When his estranged father asks him for help, Noah Torr travels to the lakeside cabin to find his father dying and determined to reconcile some of the bitterness from the past. This is primarily a study of the lives and relations of the two men and on the calamitous effect that the sinking of the ore ship Ragnarok had on them. The suspense of the tight plot originates less in external action than in the two mens increasing focus on the disaster in Lake Superior. The third-person narration skillfully interweaves tales of the past with the reality of the present. Give this book to readers of David Guterson and Robert Olmstead, who will be captured by the themes of approaching death and the pain and solace provided by nature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)