From Emma Hooper, acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine âPick of the Week,â comes a âhaunting fable about the transformative power of hopeâ (Booklist, starred review) in a charming and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction.
The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running; after the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears theyâll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens.
Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Runningâs local flora and fauna, eleven-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish. Aided by his reclusive music instructor Mrs. Callaghan, Finn thinks he may have discovered a way to find the fish, and in turn, save the only home heâs ever known. While Finn schemes, his sister Cora spends her days decorating the abandoned houses in Big Running with global flairâthe bakerâs home becomes Italy; the mailmanâs, Britain. But itâs clear sheâs desperate for a bigger life beyond the shores of her small town. As the streets of Big Running continue to empty Cora takes mattersâand her familyâs shared destiniesâinto her own hands.
In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper paints a gorgeous portrait of the Connor family, brilliantly weaving together four different stories and two generations of Connors, full of wonder and hope. Told in Hooperâs signature ethereal style, âthis delicate elegy for a dying way of life crescendos into a love song binding family members across the watersâ (Kirkus Reviews).