Where White Horses Gallup

This wonderful novel by by Beatrice MacNeil is a multi-layered look at the impact of WWII on the small town of Beinn Barra in Cape Breton.  US readers do not give enough attention to Canada and the stories of their war heroes and lives.  This would be a good place to begin.

Four young men are the centerpiece of the story - three who enlist with all the false expectations of youth and one who determines to avoid the war and hide from the authorities.  None of the four escapes the price of war, the destruction of family, the sense of loss, the price of conscience.

It is a story without a hero.  It is a novel of brave youth, the waste of war, the devastation of family.  The four young men suffer different fates, but each is left with a hollow sense of what the world and life is all about.

Set in a basic fishing village where life has simple rules and tough demands allows the narrative to explore the journey of each of the four young men and to care about each one as well.  It also lets us feel the sadness of different kinds of losses and the confusion of victory when the victors can never be the same.

Great writing, wonderful sense of place, and excellent pace to this novel.