Our Homesick Songs

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What to expect

enguin presents the audiobook edition of Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper.

There was nothing to do but tell stories. Tell this story.
And then? Asked Cora.
And then everything, said Finn.

Newfoundland, Canada, 1992. When all the fish vanish from the waters, and the cod industry abruptly collapses, it's not long before the people begin to disappear from the town of Big Running as well. As residents are forced to leave the island in search of work, ten-year-old Finn Connor suddenly finds himself living in a ghost town. There's no school, no friends and whole rows of houses stand abandoned. And then Finn's parents announce that they too must separate if their family is to survive.

But Finn still has his sister, Cora, with whom he counts the dwindling boats on the coast at night, and Mrs Callaghan, who teaches him the strange and ancient melodies of their native Ireland. That is until his sister disappears, and Finn must find a way of calling home the family and the life he has lost.

'A Wes Anderson-esque tale to fall for' Stylist

'Warm-hearted and winsomely imaginative' Sunday Times

'A novel in love with music, magic and the idealism of childhood' The Times

Critics Review

  • A Wes Anderson-esque tale to fall for

    Stylist

  • The town is filled with magic, and so is Hooper’s writing

    New York Times

  • Warm-hearted and winsomely imaginative

    Sunday Times

  • Our Homesick Songs tells a relevant, strong story about the impact of environmental change on rural communitiesand the way the young generation can feel responsible for and angry at what their forebears have done […] This is a novel in love with music, magic and the idealism of childhood

    The Times

  • Emma Hooper has used her craft and knowledge to weave together a plot mindful of narrative’s oral and lyrical beginnings, integrating folk tale and song into her work . . . an almost musical rhythm and pulse not often found in fiction writing

    Literary Review

  • The prose flows like the waves it recounts: back and forth seamlessly . . . it is elegant and musical

    The List

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