February (House of Anansi, 2009) by Lisa Moore In February, Lisa Moore uses a real-life tragedy (the sinking of the Ocean Ranger off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982) as the basis for a sensitive exploration of grief that won reader Penelope Williams's vote. She wrote:
"This is one of my top ten novels ever. Reasons? Spare beautiful prose, characters you want never to lose touch with because they are as real as family, strong sense of place [ ....] But most of all, her depiction and understanding of grief. How does a young writer understand with such empathy an older woman's feelings? Amazing. Moore is one of the writers today who can pierce your heart with one sentence eliciting an unexpected gust of tears, or causing a whoop of laughter (not the same sentence of course...). Her understanding of the human character resonates like a bell."
Accolades: February won an Independent Publisher Book Award, was named to the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of 2009 and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. It also showed up on the shortlist of numerous awards including the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the BMO Winterset Award and the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award.
I enjoyed this book. Nothing too spectacular. I'd give it a B-.
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