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  • Published: 19 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241977934
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $39.99

Our Homesick Songs





An enchanting tale about a fading town and a boy who would do anything to save his family

Newfoundland, Canada, 1992. When all the fish vanish from the waters, and the cod industry abruptly collapses, it's not long before the people begin to disappear from the town of Big Running as well. As residents are forced to leave the island in search of work, ten-year-old Finn Connor suddenly finds himself living in a ghost town. There's no school, no friends and whole rows of houses stand abandoned. And then Finn's parents announce that they too must separate if their family is to survive. But Finn still has his sister, Cora, with whom he counts the dwindling boats on the coast at night, and Mrs Callaghan, who teaches him the strange and ancient melodies of their native Ireland. That is until his sister disappears, and Finn must find a way of calling home the family and the life he has lost.

  • Published: 19 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241977934
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

Emma Hooper

Emma Hooper is a musician and writer. As a musician, her solo project 'Waitress for the Bees' tours internationally and has earned her a Finish Cultural Knighthood. As an author, she has published short stories, non-fiction pieces, poetry and libretti as well as a number of academic papers. She is a research-lecturer at Bath Spa University, in the Commercial Music department, but goes home to cross-country ski in Canada as much as she can afford.

Also by Emma Hooper

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Praise for Our Homesick Songs

A Wes Anderson-esque tale to fall for

Stylist

Warm-hearted and winsomely imaginative

Sunday Times

Our Homesick Songs tells a relevant, strong story about the impact of environmental change on rural communitiesand the way the young generation can feel responsible for and angry at what their forebears have done [...] This is a novel in love with music, magic and the idealism of childhood

The Times

Emma Hooper has used her craft and knowledge to weave together a plot mindful of narrative's oral and lyrical beginnings, integrating folk tale and song into her work . . . an almost musical rhythm and pulse not often found in fiction writing

Literary Review

The prose flows like the waves it recounts: back and forth seamlessly . . . it is elegant and musical

The List

Hooper is fascinated by the emotional territory of migration and how individual lives are shaped by forces as powerful and inexorable as the sea

Daily Mail

Magnificently arresting, fresh, gripping. A bright new star of literature ... will leave you thinking on a new level about the connections between men, women and places

The Times on 'Etta and Otto and Russell and James'

Wonderful! Incredibly moving, beautifully written and luminous with wisdom. A book that restores one's faith in life even as it deepens its mystery

Chris Cleave

A sweet, disarming story of lasting love

The New York Times on 'Etta and Otto and Russell and James'

Beautiful, eccentric, romantic, hugely satisfying

Big Issue on 'Etta and Otto and Russell and James'

Emma Hooper has constructed such an authentic sense of place from such a distant shore

Irish Times

With stark prose, Hooper captures the desperation and difficulty of life on the edge of civilization. Heartbreaking and empathetic, Hooper's fine novel is a haunting evocation of changing times and the power of place

Publishers Weekly

Lovely and lyrical. A story about storytellers told with a beguiling simplicity. Hooper's work brims with mermaids and music and memory

Toronto Star

The town is filled with magic, and so is Hooper's writing

New York Times
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