The Danforth Review
Reviewed by Teri Marcotte
"Ms. Preston’s ability to craft a tale is evocative, emotive and flows seamlessly from start to finish. And to think, were it not for her husband’s discovery of a tin of Elinor Glynn writing books in a Prince Edward Island antiques store, this story would never have been told. A mere whisper on the salty sea air."
Read the full review online
Halifax Daily News
Interview with Stephen Clare
"In many ways Nova Scotia lent itself well to the themes and moods of the work. There is a tremendous sense of history here and there are so many stories that could be told about so many characters. I later returned to the places where I had first been inspired and researched the local histories and culture. I wanted to be sure that I wrote as true to the region here as possible."
Read highlights from the interview with Stephen Clare on his blog.
The ChronicleHerald.ca
Reviewed by Susan Bradley
"The Wind Seller is carefully crafted and contains splendid descriptions of the Fundy coast and its communities...Ms. Preston is deft at creating a number of simultaneous plots and intricately detailed characters, smoothly moving her story to its completion without abandoning any of them along the way. I think Noble would have liked this book."
Read the full review
here.
The Wind Seller
By Rachael Preston
(Goose Lane, $22.95)
Set in 1924 on the shores of Nova Scotia's Minas Basin near the roaring seas of Cape Split, The Wind Seller is the story of Hetty Douglas and Noble Matheson. Hetty is (or was) a nurse who was dismissed by the VON in Halifax shortly after the First World War for comforting shattered veterans. Hastily married off to the local mill owner in a port village named Kenomme, her unhappy life is made worse by the loss of a child and nightmare of nursing victims of the Halifax explosion.
Noble is equally shaken by memories of the explosion and of his brother's death at Vimy.
Their lives are about to change forever when a black rumrunner's schooner, the Esmeralda, shows up in the Kenomee harbour. Aboard is the ship's namesake, Esmeralda, whose mother is a "wind seller", a witch who sells winds to sea captains, calling up favourable breezes for sailor's routes.
She shows up on Hetty's doorstep, asking for help. A man is badly injured and Hetty must perform an emergency amputation. But the patient dies.
Soon, tongues start wagging in this close-knit village. Should they turn the pirates in or just mind one's own business?
The Wind Seller is a unique novel of Nova Scotia, filled with choices and their consequences. Every bit as powerful as her first novel, it is both a romance and a mystery that exudes a sense of place.
The Wind Seller
By Rachael Preston
(Goose Lane, $22.95)
"The novel is a literary page-turner, churning with thrilling scenes...seamlessly constructed."
The Wind Seller
By Rachael Preston
(Goose Lane, $22.95)
Life is narrowly focused and hard in Kenomee, N.S., in 1924. Memories of the Halifax Explosion remain vivid, and men broken by the war are hidden in their rooms and on back porches, and are rarely spoken of and never seen.
But it's surprising how quickly hidden passions rise to the surface -- prodded by imagination and need -- when a mysterious schooner limps into port.
And tongues wag when a beautiful, long-haired beauty, adept at climbing rigging and as skilful at sailoring as any man, is seen on deck. Townsfolk rush to the wharf to check out the Esmeralda -- and also the vivacious Esmeralda, for whom the ship is supposedly named.
Two people in particular are beguiled by the fetching Esmeralda -- Hetty Douglas and Noble Matheson. Propelled by secrets, they set off a rollicking saga that's lusty and satisfying.
The Wind Seller is the second novel by Hamilton writer Rachael Preston, who teaches creative writing at Mohawk College and is chair of gritLIT, the Hamilton Writers' Festival. A Tent Of Blue, her first novel, was much acclaimed.
Hetty, a nurse, was witness to the Explosion, and tended to the wounded. A scandal ensued and her family married her off to a prominent, older man; her marriage is one of convenience and repressed sexual desire.
Noble was at water's edge when the two vessels collided in Halifax Harbour. His guilt stemmed from being so close to home while his handsome and popular brother was slogging through the Vimy trenches. He has kept his bewilderment of that day deeply repressed; he has never spoken of it, nor of a particular incident that he cannot forget. He too has a secret, a scandal, one that he thinks is hidden. He finds out, much later, that all of Kenomee has it sussed.
Hetty and Noble fall under the bewitching spell of Esmeralda, who figures out all too quickly that a kiss and a caress will send these provincials reeling. Hetty and Nobel first spy Esmeralda from afar; upon closer inspection, they are powerless.
The denizens of the Esmeralda, from its faded captain to the barnacled Spoon to Esmeralda herself, are predators from an earlier time. That they stumbled into a catholic backwater mired emotionally in its recent past make it easier for the picking.
Preston has an adroit way with a plot; when she segues from one character's storyline to another, in the narrative's present day or in flashback, it is seamless. Her characters are believable, resilient and quirky, and her prose is thrilling.
A wind seller, according to Preston, refers to a witch who will bestow favourable breezes upon a ship, for a fee or out of largesse. The Wind Seller's sails are full, she's racing with the wind, and a great tale awaits.
gcurtis@thespec.com
Praise for Tent of Blue
“a complex and unique story”
HERIZONS - Winter 2004
“Here’s an author to watch. Rachael Preston writes with such assurance and grace its hard to believe this is her debut as a novelist….[a] beautifully written and ultimately triumphant story.”
Independently Reviewed - Summer 2003
“…thoughtful and elegantly written…The way Preston works with…simple but suggestive symbolic moment and the way she plays off the symbolic and the realist dimensions of her narrative make Tent of Blue a thought- provoking book. Without seeming overtly postmodern or metafictional, everything here is about gaps, disjunctures, asymmetries that demand the reader ‘perform’ the book, not just absorb it.”
Event - Summer 2003
“Preston’s strength as a story teller lies in her ability to evoke a sense of time and place.”
The Daily Gleaner - February 2003
"A thoughtful novel about captivity and escape...well crafted."
W.P. Kinsella (Books in Canada) December 2002
"The skills of a storyteller shine throughout this debut novel."
The Hamilton Spectator - October 2002
"Tent of Blue is an ambitious debut novel...Preston's rich and vivid evocation of the two main characters and their vastly differing milieus is crucial to the novel's themes: Yvonne and Anton's relationships with their mothers (not to mention their absent fathers) mirror one another, while the backstage sequences of Yvonne's music-hall past provide a fascinating counterpoint to Anton's furtive adolescent longings. Preston shifts easily between the two narrative strands, never allowing one to overshadow the other."
Quill & Quire - October 2002
"Preston's Dickensian touch with pathos and villainy is refreshingly unfashionable.... When [Anton] helplessly climaxes in the cramped darkness of the closet, the cloy of wet heat and primal release are masterfully evoked."
The Globe and Mail - September 2002
"The story of a boy and his mother striving to create themselves as they learn to live heroically, despite the scathing violence of love. A novel that lingers long after the final page...Touching and subtle, a luminous mosaic of images."
Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of What the Body Remembers
"A Dickensian tale with a Canadian twist, told by a talented storyteller."
Joan Clark, author of Latitudes of Melt
"Well worth reading."
Saturna Sunset Scribbler