Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich

When I read the opening pages of Sarah Stonich's novel Laurentian Divide was I quite taken by the people in Hatchet Inlet.

"The topic over at Pavola's was death," the novel begins, not the weekly sort occurring at the Senior Cedars or the tragic kind after two local girls were killed in a "drunken swerve", but the "theoretical"--Rauri Paar has not shown up in town since the spring ice break. The customers at Pavola's are concerned and postulating the various ways Rauri may have kicked the bucket.

We meet Pete and his father Alpo, and sisters Laurie and Sissy who run the cafe, and various locals, most all with Finnish names and demonstrating their independent and stubborn heritage. Pete gratefully thinks, "I've never known a Finn to do things the easy way. Thank God, I'm half Irish. Thanks, Mom."

Sissy runs the cafe and is engaged to the widower Alpo, twenty years her senior. Early onset Alzheimers runs in Sissy's family, so their risk is mutual. Pete lost his wife and children to his alcoholism but is seven months sober. His backstory is heartbreaking, hinting at a shattered childhood that Alpo is unaware of.

Rauri wandered into town decades ago after the war and took up his isolated residence. When the land became a preserve he won a lifetime right to live there. If he leaves for over two months, he loses his protection and land. He had to be on the island. Someone should go check on him. It takes three hours and several portages to reach Rauri's home, not a trip for the fainthearted.

The Laurentian Divide in Minnesota is a continental divide which determines which direction and to what sea water flows. It seems an apt symbol. Love requited or unrequited, careers, sobriety or escape, community or isolation--the decisions the characters make determine if they are swept into the killing frigid Arctic or swim into the warmth of Equatorial waters.

But as Sissy remembers,"Cathy says life isn't something that happens to you--how you choose to react to what happens is life."

I received a free ebook from Bookish First in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The town and characters appeared in Stonich's previous book Vacationland.

The Laurentian Divide
Sarah Stonich
University of Minnesota Press
$22.95
ISBN 9781517905620