Wintering, Peter Geye’s third novel set on the shores of Lake Superior, will be the topic of a Sept. 23 presentation at the Grand Marais Public Library.
Listeners will follow a father and son’s epic journey into the forbidding wilds of the Boundary Waters as the stories unfold – beginning when a now-demented and elderly Harry escapes his sickbed and vanishes into the woods, instantly changing the Eide family, and many other lives, forever.
He’d done this once before, some 30 years earlier in 1963, fleeing a crumbling marriage and bringing along Gus, his 18-year-old son, pitching a voyage into the wilderness as an adventure, one to last the winter, one to re-enact the ancient voyageur’s journeys of discovery.
It’s certainly a season that Gus has never forgotten. And now, with his father pronounced dead, Gus relates their adventures of that season – the waterfalls and big winds, the endless paddling and portaging, the fantastical maps duplicated by Harry and relied on too much, and the sense of not being alone.
Together, Gus and Berit Lovig (who’d spent much of her life waiting for Harry to find her) fill in the stories of Harry’s life, and of the life of the town of Gunflint.
This presentation begins at 6 p.m. and will include slides of the sources that inspired and informed the writing of this novel, including images of the maps that play a central role in the story, and in the exploration of this territory.
Geye received his MFA degree from the University of New Orleans and his PhD from Western Michigan University. He was born and raised in Minnesota and continues to live here with his wife and three children. He is the author of the award winning novels Safe from The Sea and The Lighthouse Road.
For more information, contact the library at (218) 387-1140.
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