LOVE FOR NEIGHBORS

Latest Stonich novel returns to familiar places

By Peggy Benzkofer, Austin PAge turners

In 2015, our Page Turners author was Sarah Stonich and her featured book was “Vacationland.” This ode to northern Minnesota introduced us to a whole town full of characters enjoying the northland. Stonich has done it again with “Laurentian Divide.” She takes us back to the same area and we again meet our old friends from “Vacationland.”

Hatchet Inlet has experienced an awful tragedy and its effects linger. Two young women are killed in a car accident at the edge of town. Spring is finally coming but Rauri Paar is missing and spring doesn’t officially arrive until he reappears to signal ice out in the area. He is the last private owner in the Reserve on a series of small islands. He lives a hermit’s existence especially during the long, cold winter isolated in the middle of the wilderness. Speculation abounds as everyone discusses if he has left for warmer climates, is disabled on his island or has died. Also discussed is who should be the one to make the long, dangerous trek to check on him.

The town meeting place is the Pavola’s Café where the locals gather to speculate on Rauri’s fate and catch up on all the local news. A continuing controversy is whether or not motor transportation should be permitted in the Reserve as well as the future of mining in the area.

The happiest news is the planned wedding of retired miner, Alpo Lahti and Sissy Pavola, who with her sister, runs Pavola’s. The whole town is invited, including Sissy’s mother, who is suffering from early onset dementia. This results in a very unusual wedding.

Readers of “Vacationland” will remember Pete Lahti who is Alpo’s son. He has returned to Hatchet Inlet to open a veterinarian practice after a history of alcoholism and failure. His harrowing trip to check on Rauri is the centerpiece of the story. In spite of a pending storm, Pete loads up his dog in his canoe and launches into the frigid lake. His trip and what we learn about a previous trip tells us much about this tortured man. Pete is the character who brings us back to “Vacationland” and the relationships he formed in childhood.

This gentle tale celebrates small town life and the love and caring the people have for one another – warts and all. The best news is that the Laurentian Divide is the second in Stonich’s Northern Triology so we can look forward to another book about these charming characters.