Random Passage

I am in awe of the strength, determination, and hope of early pioneers. Imagine uprooting your family from what few comforts they know and travelling across the ocean to an unknown barren land to start over. Where survival means every member working hard day in and day out to build a place of shelter, gather and grow food, and fish the cold Atlantic waters in order to care for and build a life while struggling to survive harsh weather and dangerous seas. Would I be strong enough to endure such a difficult life?

I love this book because I have lived parts of it myself — been shocked by the savage winds of winter, looked wistfully southwards towards the home I left, planted and harvested potatoes with cold fingers— as do the women in Bernice Morgan’s novel about the first immigrants to Newfoundland. This vividly told and emotional novel deserves a much wider readership. Published in 1992, it was made into a film.