Synopses & Reviews
Praise for
The Hatbox Letters"Powning brilliantly illuminates grief in all its shape-shifting pain, and in so doing, expands her characters' lives, and ours...a deeply beautiful book...an extraordinary achievement."
- The Globe and Mail
"Tender and lush. . . . Powning writes about grief with uncanny precision; she gets all its ambushes and piercing aches exactly right."
- National Post
"Powning's subject here is no less than the relationship of life and death, and she engages it with rigor and grace."
- Quill & Quire
Praise for Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life
"A beautiful celebration of natural life. . . . "
- E. L. Doctorow
"In a world increasingly cynical and numb, Powning puts a light in the window for us all. . . . " - Chicago Tribune
"Powning combines an extraordinary understanding and sense of place with an affinity for the world of nature...this book imparts a feeling of serenity; Annie Dillard fans will enjoy it."
- Publishers Weekly
"An eloquent celebration of the rural lifestyle and a joy to experience."
- The Bloomsbury Review
"Powning's choice of language and the rhythm of her prose wondrously evoke the idea of living within a natural setting. . . ."
- San Francisco Book Review
Review
"Powning's writing is lyrical, with its focus on the hatboxes' secrets and the earthy beauty of the Canadian countryside. The author poignanty and creatively draws parallels between Giles' trials and Kate's tragix loss and ability to rediscover life on her own."--Romantic Times, four stars"Powning has a delicate and lyrical touch."--Kirkus"Powning does an excellent job of portraying Kate's Sadness, divulging the tales of her family and focusing on the quiet beauty of her surroundings."--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
A luminescent debut novel following one woman's journey through love, loss, grief, and renewalIn her rambling Victorian house, surrounded by heirloom gardens and the gentle sounds of a river, fifty-two-year-old Kate Harding faces her second winter since the untimely death of her husband. In her living room are several hatboxes filled with letters recently brought by her sister from the attic of their grandparents' eighteenth-century Connecticut house. Kate remembers the sense of permanence and refuge that she felt in her grandparents' apple-scented world, as well as, more recently, with her husband. As she begins to read the hatbox letters, she discovers that what to a child seemed a serene and blissful marriage was in fact founded on a tragic event. As Kate's eyes clear to the truth of the past, a new tragedy unfolds, and her own house, filled with the shared detritus of marriage and motherhood, becomes the refuge where Kate can connect the strands of her unraveled life.
About the Author
Beth Powning is the author of Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life, and Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship in Love and Loss. Born in Connecticut, she now lives in Sussex, New Brunswick.
Reading Group Guide
1. Why does it take so long for Kate to begin reading the letters/diaries? How is reading the letters similar to the "act of dispossession" that she is going through with Tom's belongings?
2. Do you think Hetty could be considered the "hero" of the book? What does Kate learn from Hetty?
3. Analyze the use of the Isak Dinesen quote: "Here I am, where I ought to be." How does Kate feel about this at the end of the book, as opposed to the beginning?
4. Describe the way Kate reacts to acquaintances and neighbours after Gregory's death -- how is it different to the way she reacted to people's concern after Tom's death? What has she learned?
5. The working title for this novel was "Vanished Lives." What were Kate's feelings, as a child, about the people who once lived in Shepton? How does reading the letters change this feeling?
6. Compare the person Kate is at the beginning of the book to the person she is at the end. How is saying "yes" similar to the way the Bakers dealt with Jonnie's death? Compare the way the Baker family and the Thomas family grieve. What does this teach Kate about healing?
7. "A layer of perfect black ice smoothes the river's corrugated surface, where winter's history lies in striations of frozen snow, rutted tire tracks, broken branches, fissures, windblown soil" (p. 256). How does the image of black ice relate to the story? In what ways does Kate seem to be a new person during the outing in the chapter “Black Ice”?
8. Compare the ways in which Hetty and Lilian made a home of Shepton. How does Kate apply this understanding to her own home on the river? How do you see Kate's future?