Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Etta and Otto and Russell and James: A Novel
    Etta and Otto and Russell and James: A Novel
    Etta and Otto and Russell and James: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    Etta and Otto and Russell and James: A Novel

    Written by Emma Hooper

    Narrated by Robert G. Slade

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    This “poetic, poignant” (US Weekly) debut features last great adventures, unlikely heroes, and a “sweet, disarming story of lasting love” (The New York Times Book Review).

    Eighty-three-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Saskatchewan, Canada eastward to the sea. As Etta walks further toward the crashing waves, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur.

    Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. “I will try to remember to come back,” Etta writes to her husband. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war. He understands. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in and Otto struggles to keep them at bay. Meanwhile, their neighbor Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar. Russell insists on finding Etta, wherever she’s gone. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life.

    Moving from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty, burnt past of hunger, war, and passion, from trying to remember to trying to forget, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is an astounding literary debut “of deep longing, for reinvention and self-discovery, as well as for the past and for love and for the boundless unknown” (San Francisco Chronicle). “In this haunting debut, set in a starkly beautiful landscape, Hooper delineates the stories of Etta and the men she loved (Otto and Russell) as they intertwine through youth and wartime and into old age. It’s a lovely book you’ll want to linger over” (People).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 20, 2015
    ISBN9781442382657
    Author

    Emma Hooper

    Raised in Alberta, Canada, Emma Hooper brought her love of music and literature to the UK, where she received a doctorate in Musico-Literary studies at the University of East-Anglia and currently lectures at Bath Spa University. A musician, Emma performs as the solo artist Waitress for the Bees and plays with a number of bands. She lives in Bath, UK, but goes home to Canada to cross-country ski whenever she can. She is the author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James and Our Homesick Songs.

    Related to Etta and Otto and Russell and James

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Etta and Otto and Russell and James

    4/5

    21 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This book was an interesting assortment of literary devices including letters, alternating narrators and time periods, magical realism, and the absence of quotation marks. Not an easy read but fascinating and hard to put down as I tried to glue together the story of these characters and how they came to be intertwined. All of them left on a journey, first Otto to the war, then many years later Etta to see the ocean and finally Russell to look for the deer. As I interpreted the story James was the symbol of what might have been - the children that were not to be. Etta was losing her memory so even the magical realism may have been in her mind. Otto was losing his health, and perhaps Russell, who had lost so much was finally realizing a dream.I have the feeling this will be a very divisive book with readers either loving or hating it.
    • 3/5
      Not sure what to think about this book. But I enjoyed reading it.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely delightful - a real rollercoaster of emotions - sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes tender, always interesting.Etta and Otto and Russell are friends from an early age - the unexpected and very different James does not appear until Etta's old age when his addition to her story makes her long journey all the more interesting.I was unable to put this down, losing a night's sleep to carry on reading! Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Very sweet little book.Loved all the characters and the authors way of putting words so they just flowed- and I just hopped in and floated away enjoying this too short story ? It ended beautifully and where it should but I just wanted more ?
    • 5/5
      I heard this book recommended on one of the book programmes on Radio 4 and liked the sound of it. And then I heard it described as the new Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and I started to have doubts, as I didn't like Harold Fry very much, but much to my surprise I liked E&O&R&J a great deal. The book does have one thing going for it that Harold Fry did not, in that it is set in a country other than the one in which I live, and deals with people who have lived a very different sort of life than the one in which I am familiar. When this sort of whimsical, almost magical, book is set too close to home I find that reality usually intervenes, no matter how hard I try to keep it out, and it diminishes my enjoyment. Whereas a setting on the prairies of Saskatchewan - well anything could happen there for all I know - if the author says there are talking coyotes, then I'm more than happy to believe in them. Etta sets out one morning on foot to see the sea, which she has never seen. But the coast of Nova Scotia is thousands of miles away and Etta is eighty-two years old and in the early stages of dementia. She carries a note with her at all times to remind her of who she is and where she comes from. Behind her she leaves her husband of over fifty years, Otto, and his best friend Russell, who has been in love with her for just as long. As Etta gets further and further east she is joined by James, the talking coyote of the title, but whether he is real or a product of Etta's increasing confusion is unclear. Otto too must go on a metaphorical journey of his own as he learns to cope without Etta, and these sections, as he learns to bake and to care for his new guinea pig were some of my favourites in the entire book. But alongside this story of Etta and Otto's old age is the story of their youth more than sixty years previously, when Otto and Russell were growing up on their families's farms in rural Saskatchewan, and Etta arrived as the new teacher at the one room schoolhouse.I'm not quite clear why I enjoyed this book so much. It certainly managed to be a moving fable without becoming overly sentimental. And I can feel the pull of the sea, so even a very long walk to see can seem like a good idea at times! So strongly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Are you ready for a journey? Well put aside everything you know about story telling and let author Emma Hooper take you to Saskatchewan Canada where you’ll meet farmers Etta and Otto who are nearing the end of their twilight years. The windswept land is dry and dusty, and Etta is longing to see the ocean. She has never been there, and even though she’s 83 years old and even though her mind is failing, she plans on walking across Canada to get there. She leaves Otto a note and starts out on this improbable trip of a lifetime. When Russell, their long time friend and neighbor, finds out she’s gone he takes off to find her and experiences his own journey. Along the way, Etta, picks up another friend—James—an unusual character that kept me guessing about her sanity, until he too won me over and I could just enjoy him for who he is in the story.Interestingly there is a lack of quotations through-out the book, so it is the authors’ voice and the flow of the words that pull you along—like lyrics in a song or free verse she takes you back and forth between the present and the past. I’ve already recommended this book to one of my friends’ who has recently been doing long distant solo hiking, but I feel that this story would appeal to a lot of people; young and old alike. It is similar to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which I also loved. 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      Strange, but very entertaining. I don't usually enjoy books with a supernatural bent but this was subtle and enchanting. I wasn't looking for any great meaning from this book so, there may have been an underlying message, but for me, it was just a great read.
    • 4/5
      Etta has gone for a walk. To see water. Except the sea is over 3000km away, and Etta is in her eighties. Yet walk she does, along the way making friends with James.Her story of walking is interwoven with the story of Otto and Russell and James; their individual stories and what brought them all together. As Etta journeys, Russell and Otto make their own personal journeys. This is a story of love, of endurance, of hope and of overcoming.This story is not unlike The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but doesn't have quite the same colour of that book. It is, however, a quite good story in it's own way, though quite disjointed - and with the inevitable ambiguous and unclear ending!
    • 2/5
      Normally I start my reviews off with a quote but I can't be bothered to go back and look for a quote for this. I don't want to spend more time on this then I need to. Some hipster some where will love this and think that it is profound, as for me I couldn't quite see the point of the book. It wasn't all bad as I did enjoy the parts from the past but I did not like Etta's journey at all.This book constantly switches between the past and present and gives readers no warning or clue as to whether it is the past or present (although it isn't that hard to figure out most of the time, but it does get a little sketchy towards the end). Running throughout the book is this sort of love triangle between Etta, Otto, and Russell, that leaves readers wondering what happened and why/how Etta winds up with Otto. The book goes back to the past to explain things as necessary but I feel like this would have been a more compelling story if the story would have been in chronological order.All throughout reading this whenever James the coyote made an appearance I couldn't help but hear every English teacher I had saying: what do you feel James symbolizes? Don't get me wrong, I like analyzing books and finding the symbolism in them but this was too much. There was just no entertainment or enjoyment in this. Don't even get me started on that ending. But quite frankly it's not like the book was really moving anywhere all that much at that point so the ending doesn't really matter. I'll end my review by saying that at least the book was pretty short.Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those books that it seems like the publisher was looking for a book like [The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry] but it missed the mark IMO. There was just not enough thread in the writing to hold the fabric of the story together.
    • 5/5
      At 83 years of age, Etta decides to walk from her farm in Saskatchewan to the Atlantic ocean, leaving her husband Otto and their best friend Russell behind. She slips away, leaving a brief note.But, that's not what this story is really about. Etta's physical journey across Canada is the vehicle to talk about life's journey. This is a story of love...deep, long-term love, of aging, of connections. At bit mystical...but not too much. Really wonderful character development. Beautiful, sparse writing. The kind of writing that is evocative, yet real, and packs a punch in a few words.One of my top reads for 2015.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure how I heard about this book but if anyone reading this review was someone who suggested it to me then my heartfelt thanks. I will hope I read some books as good as this in the rest of 2016 but right now I can't imagine it.Etta is 82 years old with a memory that sometimes fails her. She and Otto have been married for more than 60 years and have lived on a farm in Saskatchewan for all that time. Etta was a teacher in a one-room school that Otto and his best friend Russell attended for a short while until Otto became a soldier in World War II. Despite the fact that Etta was the teacher she was the same age as Otto and Russell was only 5 months younger. Otto hadn't been able to attend school much due to being needed on his parents' farm so his writing was not very good. He asked Etta to write to him while he was away and help him improve his writing and spelling. So he would write to Etta, she would correct his mistakes and send the corrected letter with her own news back to him. As they got to know each other they fell in love. Russell was unable to become a soldier so he stayed behind and farmed during the war and he fell in love with Etta too. In the waning years of their life Etta sets out to walk to the Atlantic Ocean because she has never seen the ocean. Otto stays behind, missing Etta but knowing she doesn't want him to follow her. Russell goes to find her, leaving Saskatchewan for the first time in his life. All three have experiences that would never have happened if Etta had not set off. But who is James you ask? Well, I'm not going to tell you but you might get a clue from the cover.It was an absolute delight to read this book and I hope Emma Hooper is planning on writing another one soon. However, I see from her twitter feed that she gave birth to a baby son not too long ago so she might be preoccupied for a while. She is also a musician and a lecturer at Bath Spa University in England. How do these women do everything plus write great books?
    • 3/5
      I'd heard lots of wonderful things about this book, from people whose reading sensibilities I trust. I also heard some "fair to partly cloudy" recommendations from others I respect. I didn't know how I would find it, and took it as an omen when the book took to hiding behind other books on the shelf. But it resurfaced, and I read it. Still trying to figure this out. I think, had I not read Rachel Joyce's two books, I might feel more kindly to poor Etta. As it was, her journey was not only 2,000 miles but a journey through time and memory with the men who helped define her world, as well as a coyote who was a faithful companion. Glad I read it, but still trying to sort it out in my mind. Tags: 2016-read, bookcrossing, made-me-sad, read, read-on-recommendation, still-trying-to-figure-this-one-out, thought-i-was-gonna-like
    • 4/5
      A difficult book for me to review, so I am just going to tell you why I loved this story. The characters have such a touching vulnerability, they have known each other for such a long time, have a shared past that is touching. A book about a journey, a quest if you will, about memories, longing and unfulfilled desires. Much is told in letters and flashbacks and a wonderful usage of magical realism. Those who go and those who stay waiting. An ending that is left to the reader's interpretation, but is poignant all the same. An amazing book, especially since this is the author's first. Quiet, melancholy and stunning, I can't believe that anyone reading this book will not find it touching.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      Quirky, touching, funny - right up my alley.