What Is Left the Daughter

A three-time winner of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships Howard Norman also penned The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist, which were nominated for National Book Awards. He is a writer of estimable talent as is once more evidenced in WHAT IS LEFT THE DAUGHTER, a remarkable portrait of World War II and its effects upon hearts and minds. Themes of love, death, survival, and legacy are explored as the story unfolds through a letter narrator William Hillyer is writing to his 21-year-old daughter, Marlais. When 17-year-old Wyatt was orphaned he went to live with his Aunt Constance and Uncle Donald in Nova Scotia. His parents died in a double suicide, and their funeral is an opportunity for the author to display his oblique wit - when a minister is paid $50 for his services, the reverend replies that he usually gets $50 for each. Nonetheless, Wyatt's letter to Marlais primarily concerns what happened before she was born. Once in Nova Scotia he helps in his uncle's business - making sled and toboggans and quickly falls in love with Tilda, their beauteous daughter. She does not reciprocate his feelings but as a world war looms she marries a young German. Norman captures us with the actions and decisions people make during a time of war, such as Wyatt's uncle destroying his prized record collection. In the end when Wyatt returns to his childhood home and comes face to face with the reason his parents took their own lives he is mystified. Having recently heard Bronson Pinchot narrate "Angelina," I was taken with his versatility. Again, Pinchot's voice is notable for its clarity and perfect enunciation, bringing the listener both surprise and sadness as Wyatt writes to his daughter. Recommended. - Gail Cooke

One of the best books I've read in my long life. Thank you Mr. Norman.

Though he teaches in the MFA program at the University of Maryland and lives in Vermont, in novels like THE BIRD ARTIST and THE MUSEUM GUARD, Howard Norman has succeeded in making the rugged coastal towns of Nova Scotia and the people who inhabit them his own. He continues that mastery with WHAT IS LEFT THE DAUGHTER, a thoughtful story of one man's quiet triumph over adversity --- some self-inflicted and some cruelly thrust upon him. Norman's novel is structured as a single, long letter from Wyatt Hillyer to his daughter Marlais, written a quarter century after the events in the early 1940s that form the core of the story. Wyatt's account opens with the double suicide of his parents, who leap from different Halifax bridges on the same evening, grief-stricken over their love for the same woman. Nearly 18, the orphaned young man moves to the town of Middle Economy, where he takes up residence with his Uncle Donald and Aunt Constance. Donald, a maker of sleds and toboggans to whom Wyatt is apprenticed, is obsessed with the activities of the German U-boats that prey upon civilian shipping off the Canadian Maritimes. He pins newspaper clippings about ship sinkings to the wall of his workshop and strains to hear static-filled news broadcasts. The obsession that places him "in the throes of a desperate imagination," as he puts it, will bring about tragedy for the Hillyer family. When Wyatt arrives at this new home, he meets Tilda, the adopted daughter of his aunt and uncle who seeks the odd career of "professional mourner." His attraction to her is instantaneous, but she returns from a brief trip to Halifax with Hans Mohring, a German student of philosophy at the university there, with whom her relationship quickly deepens. Hans' ancestry heightens the story's tension, and when the ferry Caribou, carrying one of the novel's principal characters, is torpedoed on its way from Halifax to Newfoundland, his presence precipitates a cataclysmic series of events that end with Wyatt convicted as an accessory to murder. That shocking episode serves as the crucible in which Wyatt's character is forged. What is most distinctive and rewarding about Norman's novel is the placid, patient voice of his narrator recounting, without a trace of self-pity or self-justification and occasionally with dry humor, how he has absorbed the rough blows life has dealt him. From the bizarre death of his parents, to his unrequited love for Tilda, to his humble life as a "detritus gaffer" in Halifax harbor after the terrible crime that sunders the novel, he's the victim of more than a lifetime's worth of hardship. Yet in the face of his travails, Wyatt perseveres, with regrets, certainly, but with an understanding that he has achieved the hard-won status of survivor. As Cornelia Tell, Wyatt's friend and the owner of a bakery shop where many of the novel's intimate conversations occur, reminds him, "In your life happiness is either cut to your length or it isn't." It's a statement o

I am a big fan of Norman's and read his novels as soon as they come out. Just about everything has already been said in other reviews, but just let me add that this is one of his best efforts; a completely engaging and beautifully written novel that at all times shows great respect for each person/character. I agree with one reviewer that Norman is not for all tastes - he is a quiet and personal author who writes about the 'small' things in life that hold so much meaning for us. To me, this is very special.

I have read 3 previous books by Mr. Norman ("The Bird Artist", "The Museum Guard" and "The Haunting of L.") and enjoyed them all very much. I therefore came to this book with high expectations, and they were not disappointed. Mr. Norman has a way with his stories of telling them in a calm and sure voice that reassures the reader while at the same time advancing the plot effortlessly. This plot involves a protagonist whose parents both commit suicide on the same day, by jumping from different bridges. He's then taken in by an Aunt and Uncle who have a daughter about his age. The uncle has a sled and toboggan making business, and our young man joins him in this. It is 1941 and, in Nova Scotia, the threat of ship sinking by German subs is never very far from everyone's thoughts.In fact, the uncle has become obsessed with it, and papers the wall of his workshop with newspaper clippins and pictures about subs and sinkings. The plot really takes off when the daughter brings home a young German student whose family fled to Denmark to escape the Nazis. Despite this, he is looked upon as a potential enemy by almost everyone in the small town where the action takes place. His arrival sets off a chain of events that is both tragic and heartfelt. To say more would be to ruin the book for potential readers. All that I can say is that, if you enjoy a small story with believeable characters that is told in an excellent way, you will definitely find this book to your liking. It is highly recommended!