The Long-Shining Waters (Milkweed National Fiction Prize)

by Danielle Sosin

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Publication

Milkweed Editions (2012), Edition: Reprint, 320 pages

Description

Lake Superior, the north country, the great fresh-water expanse. Frigid. Lethal. Wildly beautiful. The Long-Shining Waters gives us three stories whose characters are separated by centuries and circumstance, yet connected across time by a shared geography. In 1622, Grey Rabbit-an Ojibwe woman, a mother and wife-struggles to understand a dream-life that has taken on fearful dimensions. As she and her family confront the hardship of living near the "big water," her psyche and her world edge toward irreversible change. In 1902, Berit and Gunnar, a Norwegian fishing couple, also live on the lake. Berit is unable to conceive, and the lake anchors her isolated life, testing the limits of her endurance and spirit. And in 2000, when Nora, a seasoned bar owner, loses her job and is faced with an open-ended future, she is drawn reluctantly into a road trip around the great lake. As these narratives unfold and overlap with the mesmerizing rhythm of waves, a fourth mysterious character gradually comes into stark relief. Rich in historical detail, and universal in its exploration of the human desire for meaning when faced with uncertainty, The Long-Shining Waters is an unforgettable and singular debut.… (more)

Media reviews

Star Tribune

But on the whole, this ode to the greatest of all lakes is nothing less than grand.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ken1952

Lake Superior is one of the featured players in this lyrical novel that follows three women and their emotional ties to the lake. A rich and compelling read that is perfect for reading groups.

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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd

A stunningly beautiful read. We meet three strong, challenged women whose stories are woven together around the central character of this novel, Lake Superior. Grey Rabbit is an Ojibwe woman living with her family along the shores of Gichigami, the big water, in a time before anyone in her ken had

seen a white face. She is plagued with disturbing dreams which she cannot understand, but which make her fearful for the safety of her sons. Nearly 300 years later, Berit tends home and hearth along the same shores, while her husband Gunnar makes a living casting his nets into the Great Lake's unforgiving waves, and working for weeks at a time in a distant lumber camp. She too has dreams...waking dreams in which she stares across the water, or into its depths seeking the faces of her own children...children who have never materialized. And at the beginning of the 21st century, Nora, a widow, suffers the loss of her livelihood when her bar burns to the ground, seemingly taking all her memories with it. As she sets out to document each lost sunken ship painting, bit of driftwood, sign and nautical ornament in a notebook, she drives aimlessly around the lake, looking for the answer to the big question that heads her last page---"What next?". Serving as a sort of grout between the mosaic tiles of these three stories are the lyrical observations of a drowned man who sees the timeless world above him through a watery lens. Common images grace each section---dragonflies, wolves, white butterflies, the northern lights, agates. It's nearly impossible to convey the overall effect of this marvelous piece of writing. There isn't a lot of action, and none of the stories comes to a definitive resolution, but Life carries forward. "Water circles from sea to sky and back. It lifts through tree roots, releases through leaves, and all the animals make their paths. To the water, always changing, always wholly receptive."

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