Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw
When a devastating storm strikes the coast of Nova Scotia, a man is left grief-stricken after losing his wife and children. His house and the chunk of land it stands on are swept out to sea, having broken away from the mainland during the storm. Before long, stories begin to circulate among sailors and fishermen about a mysterious floating island and the strange man who lives there, a man who never seems to grow older.
Decades later, a twelve-year-old girl spots the island off the coast. She manages to reach the island and meets the man who lives there. She is not welcome and he puts her back in her boat and sends her home. She’s gone for only a few hours, but when she returns, she discovers that a week has passed. As an adult, she has done her best to convince herself that the experience was just her imagination. Then the island is sighted again, and the memories she has buried come rushing back and she can’t resist finding the island again. To say much more would be to give away the story.
And if all you’re looking for is a good story, you’ll find it here: a modern sea tale with a little adventure and a little romance. But if you choose to read a little deeper, the book has a lot to say about choices and change. It explores our wants and desires and how they can change over time until our past selves can feel like strangers. It examines regret, the feeling of being held captive by the past and asks whether we would be brave enough to pursue what we really want if given the chance. At the same time, it acknowledges the unpredictability of life and how sometimes our choices don’t matter. Like the sea, life can carry us to places we never expected.
If any of this speaks to where you are in life right now, this might be the book for you. You can borrow it, along with many other great reads, from the Champlain Library.
