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Summary
Summary
Set against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota, Safe from the Sea is a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father thirty-five years after the tragic wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat that the father only partially survived and that has divided them emotionally ever since. When his father for the first time finally tells the story of the horrific disaster he has carried with him so long, it leads the two men to reconsider each other.
Meanwhile, Noah's own struggle to make a life with an absent father has found its real reward in his relationship with his sagacious wife, Natalie, whose complications with infertility issues have marked her husband's life in ways he only fully realizes as the reconciliation with his father takes shape.
Peter Geye has delivered an archetypal story of a father and son, of the tug and pull of family bonds, of Norwegian immigrant culture, of dramatic shipwrecks and the business and adventure of Great Lakes shipping in a setting that simply casts a spell over the characters as well as the reader.
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
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 men's 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.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Noah Torr receives an unexpected call for help and is informed that his father, Olaf, is in the last stages of cancer. He travels from Boston to the wilds of Minnesota to give what assistance he can. Their final conversations reveal the story of the wreck of Olaf's ship, Ragnarar, and reconcile both father and son to the errors of the past, allowing forgiveness and understanding to replace anger. Geye's first novel is an Indie Lit Award Winner for Best Literary Fiction. His descriptions of Lake Superior, the ore mining industry, and the fateful night that changed the lives of his characters are powerful and evocative. The story's emotional content is ably captured by reader David Aaron Baker. This audiobook will appeal to all fiction fans. ["Inspiring, wise, and enthusiastically recommended for all readers," read the review of the Unbridled hc, LJ 9/15/10.-Ed.]-Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
