Listener in the Snow

Jollymore (Observation Hill) weaves Native American and Finnish folklore into an emotional journey of discovered identities, loss, guilt, forgiveness, and enduring friendship. Tatty Langille drives from Florida to Minnesota to reconcile with his estranged Ojibwe wife, Mary, who is midwifing her cousin Windsong’s birth of twins. On his long drive, Tatty reminisces on his abusive father’s Mi’kmaq heritage, his mother’s Nova Scotian roots, his desire not to have children, and his wife’s mysterious tantrums. In Minnesota, Tatty encounters a blizzard, as well as a vision of the Algonquin windigo spirit being chased by a man and two women. Rescued from his overturned Jeep by samaritan Scummy and brought to a tavern for recuperation, Tatty learns he is inexorably linked to his wife’s family through the legend of the windigo. The plot takes a strange third-act turn, but this flaw is balanced by the book’s strengths: the stories of Native American folklore, family dynamics that lead to hard choices, the consequences of kept secrets, and the value of Native customs. This is a memorable story of love rekindled and truths revealed. [em](BookLife) [/em]