Hooper, a native Canadian whose family has lived for generations on the prairies of Saskatchewan, dug in. “Then when I’m looking for things to write about, I go and look in the box.”Ī few years ago, the box began brimming with notes centered on a single theme-the story of an old person walking across Canada. “If I have an idea of any kind, I’ll throw it in the box,” says Hooper. ‘Doing both’ means finding time between lectures and gigs to jot down story ideas and stash them in a cardboard box (a refreshingly old-school way to store information in this era of cloud computing). Over the last 10 years, music has taken up more of my time, but now the book is coming to the forefront, so it will take over for a while. “I guess it’s kind of like Leonard Cohen, who famously got into music to pay for his writing habits,” says Hooper. She is a musician-a composer, a violin teacher, a viola player who performs as a solo artist and in bands an academic, a teacher and a researcher in the field of musico-literary studies at Bath Spa University in England and a writer whose debut novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James has received a Kirkus star.įor Hooper, creative cross-pollination is not just natural but necessary. Emma Hooper, with a biography full of commas, is a creative triple threat.

Rocking back and forth with the pull of the waves, Etta and Otto and Russell and James moves from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty burnt past of hunger, war, passion, and hope from trying to remember to trying to forget.In Hollywood they’re called triple threats-those enviable individuals with so much talent that they not only do one thing and do it very well, they do many things and do them all well. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life.Īs Etta walks farther toward the ocean, accompanied by a coyote named James, her past and present blur. He insists on finding Etta, wherever she's gone. Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar.

Emma Hooper on the patchwork quilt of people that have inspired her writing.

But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in, and Otto struggles to keep them at bay. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a faraway war. I will try to remember to come back, Etta writes to him.

Her husband, Otto, wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. So, early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from Saskatchewan to Halifax.

The great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150Ĩ2-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean.

Etta and otto