Etta and Otto and Russell and James - Softcover

Hooper, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241185866 ISBN 13: 9780241185865

Publisher: Fig Tree, 2015

Synopsis

'Writing that easily equals that of the Booker-winning Richard Flanagan...[and] as readable and gripping as any thriller.' - The Times

I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back.

Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2, 000 miles to water.

Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently - and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.

About this title

Review:

Writing that easily equals that of the Booker-winning Richard Flanagan...[and] as readable and gripping as any thriller. Only the thrills offered by this bright new star of literature are metaphysical and unexpected and will leave you thinking on a new level about the connections between men, women and places. (The Times)

Beautifully written...this deserves to follow in the footsteps of 2014's big debut novels The Miniaturist and Elizabeth Is Missing. (Daily Express)

Intriguing... a clear and beautifully unadorned prose style... Hooper has written an interesting, nuanced and genuinely moving book. (Guardian)

Hooper has more or less nailed the 'Amelie' charm with this sweet, disarming story of lasting love...Hooper shows great restraint in balancing the quirky with the universal, blurring the lines between them. This may be the best novel to meaningfully feature windblown dust. Hooper's steady hand creates the perfect setup for the unexpected. To paraphrase Wallace Stevens: A man and a woman are one. Two men, a woman and a coyote are one. (New York Times)

Luminous debut...there's a lovely musicality to her prose - care and attention have been spent on the rhythms and melody of her words...wonderfully tender. (Sunday Express)

Her debut novel is a magical, big-hearted book about one woman's walk to the sea. If Wes Anderson's stylised dream worlds make you happy, you need a copy of Etta and Otto and Russell and James. (Elle Magazine)

A fan of Audrey Niffenegger and Alice Munro, Hooper's sense of playfulness comes across in the book's gentle magical realism' (The Observer)

charming, sweet...there is a singing simplicity that cuts through to the heart of things...fresh and touching (Sunday Times)

[A] delightful debut novel (Mail on Sunday)

Beautifully written...a powerfully moving account. (Sunday Express)

From the Back Cover:

'Tell me about home, please. Tell me about the weather. About the heat or dust or still-ness. Anything. And tell me about you. I keep your photo on the side without the gun. For balance.'

This is a love story that spans fifty years, three lives, two continents and an ocean. It tells of school teacher Etta, who settles in the Canadian prairies during the Great Depression and of the two pupils who fall in love with her: Russell, a city boy who takes to farming despite his twisted leg, and Otto, who struggles in school but always tries hard - even when he's sent to fight a war in a distant land. It is a story of love and joy, pain and passion, memory and forgetting - and one incredible journey. It is the story of Etta and Otto and Russell and James.

'Poetical, satirical, melancholy and full of big-country breeze and sunshine' 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

'A sweet, disarming story of lasting love' New York Times

'Beautiful, eccentric, romantic, hugely satisfying' Big Issue

About this edition

• Publisher: Fig Tree
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0241185866
• ISBN 13: 9780241185865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288