James, the wolf, encounters Etta on her journey as a guide.Įtta & Otto & Russell & James was a slight out-of-my-comfort zone read and I’m glad I read it. Russell, like a brother to Otto since they were children, lives on the neighbouring farm. Otto, her husband, must learn how to be on his own for the first time, and even though she left a note saying I will try to remember to come back, he’s not worried about her. She leaves with a note in her pocket of who she is and who her family is, besides food and a rifle. Etta wakes up one morning in the farmhouse she shares with Otto in Saskatchewan and decides she needs to walk to the East Coast. Told in chapters that alternate between the present and the past, we are brought into the world of a couple as they were together and apart. James – now: wolf who wanders with Etta then: not yet in existence.Įtta & Otto & Russell & James was a beautiful, melancholy read of love, independence and character. Russell – now: elderly bachelor, farmer, in love with Etta then: school boy left at home due to a bungled leg, in love with Etta. Otto – now: elderly husband, left alone to make paper mache animal sculptures then: young soldier who learned how to write by sending letters to his former schoolteacher. Hamish Hamilton, out now.Įtta – now: elderly wife, early alzheimer’s, restless then: young schoolteacher, in love with a former student, grieving her sister. Like the gentle undulation of waves, Etta and Otto and Russell and James moves from a past filled with hunger, war, passion, and hope to a present of quiet industry and peaceful communion from trying to remember to trying to forget.Ī beautiful novel that reminds us that it’s never too late to see the things you’ve longed to see, or to say the things you’ve longed to say.Etta & Otto & Russell & James, by Emma Hooper. Leaving his farm will be the first act of defiance in his whole life.Īs Etta walks toward the ocean - accompanied by a coyote named James - memory, illusion, and reality blur.
He insists on finding Etta, wherever she’s gone.
Russell, raised as a brother to Otto, has loved Etta from afar for sixty years. The only way to keep them at bay is to keep his hands busy. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war, so he understands.
Her husband Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. I will try to remember to come back, Etta writes. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from Saskatchewan to Halifax. Eighty-two-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean.
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