Be Still the Water

Karen Emilson

Paperback

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For fans of The Alice Network and When We Believed in Mermaids an emotionally gripping historical novel about devastating secrets and once-in-a-lifetime love.

Canada, 1906. Teenager Asta Gudmundsson has immigrated with her family to an Icelandic farming and fishing community along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba. There she falls deeply in love with Bjorn but after a night of violence that leaves Asta broken, the pair make a silent pledge to never speak of it again.

With help from her mystical, high-spirited grandmother, Asta begins to rebuild her inner world until the unthinkable happens--her beloved sister Freyja disappears. As World War I is declared in Europe and the man she loves enlists, Asta must make a choice: stay safely at home or set out to find her sister.

Inspired by true events, Be Still the Water is a vivid, coming of age epic complete with unforgettable characters and a heart-wrenching ending--one that will leave you reflecting on Asta's fateful decisions long after the last page is turned.

2019 Canadian Book Club Awards for Fiction finalist
Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction shortlist
IPPY & Readers' Favorite Medalist

Book Details

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Publish Date: Aug 10th, 2016
Pages: 554
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 1.23in - 1.77lb
EAN: 9781535408080
Categories: • Literary• Romance - Historical - 20th Century• Action & Adventure

About the Author

Karen Emilson was born and raised in southern Ontario, the daughter of Irish immigrants on her mother's side; and an eclectic mix of Swiss, German and English on her father's side. She spent all her free time as a child reading books and writing stories, dreaming one day of becoming a writer. In 1982 she came to Manitoba as a young bride, settling in at the Nordheim farm in Siglunes. Karen worked as a rural newspaper reporter and wrote stories, publishing the Canadian Bestseller, "Where Children Run" in 1996 and its sequel "When Memories Remain" in 2001. When Lake Manitoba overflowed its banks in 2011, flooding out the farmland at Siglunes, she was inspired to finish a story started 10 years earlier about the immigrants who carved out a living there. Now she lives in Grunthal, Manitoba and writes full time. "Be Still the Water" is her first novel.

Praise for this book

"I loved the language, the vivid descriptions, the occasional bursts of wisdom, and the compelling characters. Karen Emilson has won my interest in her work and she skillfully establishes herself in the historical fiction genre." -Arya Fomonyuy, Readers' Favorite "This is a book that everyone of Icelandic descent should read. They will find people like themselves and their friends in these pages . . . however, this is not a novel just for the Icelandic ethnic community. The characters come to life, their stories, while ethnic and Canadian, are universal. We follow Asta in her quest to find her sister but we also follow the lives of the many characters who make up the community as they search out both opportunity and love in a new land." -W.D. Valgardson, author of The Girl with the Botticelli Face "Karen Emilson's style is unique and the writing exquisite . . . characters like Asta are unforgettable and readers will so naturally feel drawn to her world. Apart from the beautiful prose and the absorbing plot, the author has a powerful gift for humor." -Divine Zape, Readers' Favorite "Emilson deals with that most mysterious of crossroads, life to death, with humor, and she allows mystery and the story itself to carry us there." -Michael Kenyon, author of The Beautiful Children "Be Still the Water is a simple but beautiful and intricate story about family, a reflection on love, life, tragedy, friendship and death. With its realistic storyline, it has the charm to make any reader wonder whether this is fiction at all, along with its unforgettable characters." -Lit Amri, Readers' Favorite