Soon Otto becomes obsessed with constructing a menagerie of papier-mâché wildlife. With Etta absent, Otto begins baking from her recipes, his companion a guinea pig, always silent. To a Cormac McCarthy–like narrative-sans quotation marks, featuring crisp, concise conversations-Hooper adds magical realism: Etta’s joined by a talking coyote she names James, who serves as guide and sounding board. She carries a bit of food, a rifle, and a note of her identity and home. As Hooper’s shifting narrative opens, now-83-year-old Etta awakens, intending to walk to Canada’s east coast, leaving a brief note for her husband, Otto. Russell, broken leg improperly mended, could not. One of the teachers was Etta, no older than Otto and Russell. The Great Depression burned on, crops failed, and schooling was casual.
When Otto Vogel was still a child, half-orphaned Russell joined the brood. On Saskatchewan’s Great Plains grew 15 Vogel children. Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied.
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