The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye

Peter Geye presents a compelling story set up north (think Grand Marais and Grand Portage) along the north shore of Lake Superior set in a town named Gunflint.  It is a story of a rugged landscape that challenges the people who have migrated here from their Scandinavian homelands or other countries where opportunity was too limited for the growing population.  In the town of Gunflint the cultures come together - it would be wrong to say that they collided because the act of surviving did not leave time for petty arguments.

The central figure is named Odd Einar Eide an orphan raised by Hosea - chemist, doctor, dentist, store keeper, and liquor smuggler.  Hosea is thoughtful and we can see that he really cares for the orphan, but we are kept in the dark until the end about his relationship with the mother - no he is not the real father.  Hosea has traveled to Chicago to bring home another young orphan - someone who is 14 years older than Einar and much more experienced with the world.

He gets her from a whorehouse where she was working the hat check and brings her to Gunflint to pose as his daughter while also posing for pornographic post cards.  Hosea for all his faults does not have sexual relationships with Rebekah, but he is a mysterious force for both her and Einar whom he employs to run his illegal liquor and to catch fish.

We learn about Einar's mother, a Norwegian who lands in Gunflint to find that the aunt that she was supposed to stay with has hung herself in the barn and the uncle is mad.  No language, no resources, not much future so she ends up working as a cook in the local lumber camp where she earns some money and suffers a rape that results in Einar.

This is a group of quiet people - stoic and reserved - emotions inside, but not allowed out. Frustrations brew, deceptions are hidden, and Rebekah and Einar find solace in their relationship.  A relationship that leads to Duluth, a child and the thought of moving forward, but this is not the kind of people who dream big - they become anchored to a place and life and it is hard to leave.  

So the romance must make it through this filter and whether it succeeds or fails is for you to discover when you read the book.  For me it was a good portrait of a time, place, and people.