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    Safe From the Sea
    Safe From the Sea
    Safe From the Sea
    Audiobook7 hours

    Safe From the Sea

    Written by Peter Geye

    Narrated by David Aaron Baker

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In his "finely crafted first novel" (Booklist), Peter Geye evokes the savage beauty of Lake Superior's north shore and the bittersweet reunion of a dying father and his hurting son after decades of estrangement. When Noah Torr returns to his family's Minnesota cabin to reconnect with his father, he learns for the first time what really happened 35 years ago-and how it changed his father forever. "This deeply moving, powerfully realized debut novel [is] inspiring, wise, and enthusiastically recommended for all readers."-Library Journal
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 8, 2011
    ISBN9781449867232

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    Reviews for Safe From the Sea

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Noah returns home from Boston to care for his ailing father in his northwoods Minnesota lake cabin. Their relationship has been strained for years, ever since the Lake Superior shipwreck that has been a defining before and after event in all of their lives. Olaf has never told the full story of the wreck and it is told here as a story within a story.This will be one of my favorite books of the year ? another wonderful gem. It is a story of reconciliation, love, and understanding, with a gripping survival narrative thrown in. The setting is well described and the characters drawn with heartfelt warmth. The descriptions of Great Lakes ore shipping was fascinating. (I couldn't help, sometimes, humming The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.)This is the author?s debut novel and he's just published another. I can't wait to read it.
    • 5/5
      This debut book was an interesting variation of the Prodigal Son story. In this case, the father mentally left his family after he survived the shipwreck of the Ragnarok, a huge ore boat on Lake Superior. He spent most of the next twenty years on the lake and in the seedy bars of port towns trying to forget what happened. It was only when he was dying that he called his estranged son Noah in Boston and asked him to come home. This book was as mesmerizing and moody as the cover picture showing the rocky coastline and the dark sky with light breaking out in the far horizon. It's the story of a dying man's memories where he unloads his burden of guilt for something that wasn't his fault. There is something for everyone in this book: beautiful writing, a shipwreck, love stories between husband and wife and father and son. Peter Geye did an excellent job describing the beauty and danger of Lake Superior and the crustiness and courage of the men who sail upon her. My grandfather was a Norwegian immigrant who worked on ore boats all his life in this country and my uncle was a ship's captain on the Great Lakes so I grew up hearing stories similar to this. I'm looking forward to more books by this new author. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Loved it. I was ready for a good story and found it with this book.
    • 5/5
      From my book review blog Rundpinne.......An astonishingly moving debut novel, Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye explores the relationship between father and son. Geye describes Lake Superior as well as the surrounding areas in astonishingly beautiful and vivid detail. Geye writes of Norwegian immigrant Olaf Torr, one of only a few survivors of the sinking of the Ragnarok, an iron ore boat off the shores of Lake Superior. This event was a catalyst forever altering the lives of Olaf and his children Solveig and Noah. As Noah heads to the cabin where his estranged father is dying, he worries about the past as well as the present and future with his wife Natalie. Safe From the Sea, while a relatively short book, is rich in deep issues, giving the reader pause to contemplate each decision, indecision and the ramifications of action or inaction. Covering some very intense topics, Geye guides the reader through serene Northern Minnesota, taking me back to my childhood summers spent there. Safe from the Sea is filled with intense emotions and these are often described through scenes and descriptions. Sometimes there just are no words to adequately suffice, other times, especially with Noah, his short clipped statements speak volumes. Hailing from Minnesota, I do not know of many older than myself who do not speak in the manner of Olaf, so it was a comfort to me and brought me back home. Time flew by as I read Geye’s debut novel and I believe he is definitely an author to be watching for more great works. I highly recommend Safe from the Sea to all readers. 2010 JH/Rundpinne
    • 5/5
      In Safe from the Sea we meet an old mariner, Olaf Torr. He is slowly dying, and his estranged son, Noah, has come to help him in his final weeks. Olaf was one of only three survivors of the sinking of a Lake Superior oreboat. One of the best parts of the novel is the mesmerizing story of the sinking of Olaf’s ship, the Ragnarok. Their father survived, but much of him was left behind when the ship went down.

      Olaf and Noah grapple with their past and what brought them to this place in their lives. Most of the novel takes place in a cabin on the lake. You can feel the chill of winter and the smell of the fire in the wood stove, This is one of those novels where the setting is another character in the story,

      Safe From the Sea is understated, but strong on dialogue. It left me thinking about it long after I had put it down. It's beautifully written with intriguing characters and an amazing look into life on one of the Great Lakes ships.

      WTR 1351
    • 5/5
      Eventually I'll put together a full review. But for now, I'm just going to say...this book made me cry. Twice. I never cry when I read a book. That may just be all I need to say.
    • 4/5
      Truly enjoyed this.
      Attracted to it because I had stumbled upon & read another book by this author(The Lighthouse Road)and because this has a major storyline of the Great Lakes freighter life and a barely survived wreck.
      Traveling along the MI shoreline has made me fascinated by shipping life on the Lakes. That portion of the story-line is compelling as well.
      I was surprised just how compelling this book was.
      Family is complicated and fortunately these characters have the time and opportunity to discover each other with better understanding and find peace.
    • 3/5
      "Olaf nodded up at the sky. 'He taught me some things about navigating. Just basic stuff, but I was hooked. He said that a true seaman could sail around the world without anything more than a watch and a sextant and the sky to guide him. I didn't even know what a sextant was, just figured you knew where to go if you were in charge of one of those boats. I never reckoned there was any science to it. Wolf taught me how to take sun sights, how to chart our course, how to estimate our position using dead reckoning when the sky was cloudy and the shore out of sight.' He paused, cleared his throat. 'Now it's just a bunch of satellites telling you where you are and where to go. Back then it was still something beautiful to steer a ship." (pg. 62)

      Noah Torr's relationship with his father Olaf has always been a tricky one to navigate. In this novel, Olaf's a crusty, weathered former sailor who is somewhat of a local legend along the remote northern Minnesota shoreline where he lives, haunted by his surviving a devastasting 1967 shipwreck that killed all 27 of his 30-member crew.

      It's a story that Olaf has been reluctant to tell, but now that he's dying and his son Noah has returned home (ostensibly to "help him prepare the cabin for winter"), he unburdens himself of the secrets and guilt that he has carried for nearly four decades since the accident. In the process, father and son begin the rocky process of trying to understand and accept one another before its too late.

      Yeah, the troubled-father-and-son-making-amends-on-one's-deathbed story has been done before, but it's a theme universal enough that it doesn't flounder in Peter Geye's hands as an author. For starters, Geye apparently knows his stuff (or has done a tremendous amount of research) regarding several key areas of the book. The descriptions of the northern Minnesota coast and its waters, as well as of boats and shipping and the shipping industry, are incredibly well done - not to mention the characters' hardy Norwegian heritage and Noah and his wife's Natalie's infertility struggles. I'd be surprised if much of this did not originate from Geye's own life - which is more than perfectly fine, particularly since Safe from the Sea is Geye's debut novel.

      Moreso than the story and the writing (which seemed to me to be perfunctory and matter of fact, but is perhaps designed to be such to reflect the characters' personalities), Safe from the Sea is a story with a strong sense of place. As the reader, you absolutely feel as if you are right there in the fierce winter storm with the ill-fated sailors, even if you (like me) have barely set foot on a boat. Like Per Petterson's I Curse the River of Time (which I didn't care for much at all), you physically feel cold reading this novel.

      (Our air-conditioner broke a few hours after I finished this and the temperature was a toasty 83 degrees inside our house. This would have been the perfect book to read under such conditions, believe you me.)

      Safe from the Sea is one that many bloggers love, many calling it "stunning" and "gorgeous." I'm in the minority here and am not going quite that far (it's not going to be one of my absolute favorites of the year, as it is for many of my blogging peers), but it was a satisfying enough read for me, one that I appreciated, and definitely one that will make me seek out Peter Geye's work in the future.
    • 4/5
      Noah Torr is summoned by his dying father to said father’s cabin in the woods near Duluth Wisconsin. Olaf was an officer on the great freighters that ply mighty Lake Superior and in 1967 was one of only three survivors when his ship went down – comparisons to the Edmund Fitzgerald were, of course, inevitable in my mind. Noah is bitterly resentful of his father’s drinking problem and his ‘absence’ from his young life.Unfortunately, I didn’t find this the “tautly written gem” that Joseph Boyden, one of my favourite authors, found. Geye has a powerful story to tell – of the night the ship sank and of the rifts and healings between father and son – but the book has more of a commercial, rather than literary, flavour.I didn’t really connect to any of the characters—and was especially annoyed by Noah’s wife who gives him grief for being with his dying father, because she’s ovulating and wants him home to try for a baby. I mean, c’mon, his father’s dying and you’ll ovulate next month, won’t you? I was going to rate this a “4”, but decided while I was writing this on 3½ stars.Read this if: you’re interested in a harrowing tale of how it just might be on a freighter that is sinking in stormy waters.
    • 5/5
      Noah returns home from Boston to care for his ailing father in his northwoods Minnesota lake cabin. Their relationship has been strained for years, ever since the Lake Superior shipwreck that has been a defining before and after event in all of their lives. Olaf has never told the full story of the wreck and it is told here as a story within a story.This will be one of my favorite books of the year – another wonderful gem. It is a story of reconciliation, love, and understanding, with a gripping survival narrative thrown in. The setting is well described and the characters drawn with heartfelt warmth. The descriptions of Great Lakes ore shipping was fascinating. (I couldn't help, sometimes, humming The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.)This is the author’s debut novel and he's just published another. I can't wait to read it.
    • 4/5
      Well written about an aging father and a somewhat estranged son. Pretty good, set in the Great Lakes.
    • 5/5
      synopsis from the publisher Set against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota, Safe from the Sea is a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father thirty-five years after the tragic wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat that the father only partially survived and that has divided them emotionally ever since. When his father for the first time finally tells the story of the horrific disaster he has carried with him so long, it leads the two men to reconsider each other. Meanwhile, Noah’s own struggle to make a life with an absent father has found its real reward in his relationship with his sagacious wife, Natalie, whose complications with infertility issues have marked her husband’s life in ways he only fully realizes as the reconciliation with his father takes shape. Peter Geye has delivered an archetypal story of a father and son, of the tug and pull of family bonds, of Norwegian immigrant culture, of dramatic shipwrecks and the business and adventure of Great Lakes shipping in a setting that simply casts a spell over the characters as well as the reader. This is another fantastic novel published by Unbridled Books. I saw a mention of it on twitter and I am so glad I checked it out. I don't know why I had not heard of this book before, but am grateful it finally crossed my path.Peter Geye writes beautifully in this story of an estranged father and son.Noah, though he has such a tumultuous relationship with his dad, does not hesitate when Olaf calls Noah to say that he needs his help. Noah leaves his wife in Boston and heads to Northern Minnesota to stay with his dad in the cabin Noah remembers from his childhood. He discovers his father is ill, dying according to Olaf. The present story is mixed with the past story that Olaf tells Noah, of a disaster on an ore boat on Lake Superior thirtysome years ago, where Olaf was one of a few survivors. Noah knows of the story of course, but not everything that happened. This tragedy changed Noah's childhood but now he learns how it affected his father.Geye created such amazing, three-dimensional characters that I really cared about. His physical descriptions of the surroundings made the story that much more alive.I can't possibly do this novel justice with a review, so let me just say how highly I recommend this book.my rating 5/5
    • 4/5
      It's hard to review this book without giving things away -- small things that are best discovered on reading. Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye is a lovely story is a story of a father and son spending time together after an estrangement.It's just this one empty spot. During his visit with his father Noah asks him about the shipwreck that he knows changed his father's life, but also affected his own life in way he never realized until he heard the story from his father.I was prepared to learn that Noah's life was full of angst ridden despair based on his father's real and imagined faults , and delighted to learn that Noah was reasonably happy and well balanced, if as imperfect as an other human being. He may even have had a feeling of superiority about some of his success, mingled with an uncertainty of measuring up in his father's eyes. He's thinking about this during his visit.There are no villains in Safe from the Sea. Even the sea is "just" Lake Superior and nature being nature. If there is anything close to being a villain, it might be drawing conclusions without knowing all the facts, deciding you know all you need to know.The inner story of the shipwreck provides some intense action juxtaposed against the relative quiet, yet often just as emotional, visit between father and son. It both reflects the lives of Noah's family and counters the steady pace and buildup to the climax of the outer story.
    • 5/5
      The Short of It:A quiet, simple story about a father and a son. Told in simple, but beautiful prose, Safe from the Sea reminds you what it feels like to read a really good book.The Rest of It:Noah returns home to take care of his dying father, Olaf. The two have not been close for several years, so Noah is surprised at his father’s request. Although the decision to return home is not an easy one and is not a decision his wife Natalie is happy about, he decides to make the trip back to the lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota. There, the two grapple with their past and what brought them to this place in their lives.Peter Geye’s writing is simple and clean. There are no extraneous details to be found. Every word is thoughtfully chosen and blends seamlessly into the story as a whole. The characters are genuine and weathered to a degree, which makes them all the more endearing to the reader.Most of the novel takes place in a cabin on the lake. Surrounded by the chill of winter, you can smell the fire in the wood stove, feel the crispness of the snow beneath their feet. This is one of those novels where the setting certainly adds to the story, but Geye manages to allow it to exist within the background, quietly. It doesn’t compete with the rest of the story, and I found that the same can be said for any of the components within this novel. They all mesh beautifully with one another.I really enjoyed Safe from the Sea. I found it to be deeply moving and well told.
    • 5/5
      It has been years since Noah had heard from him. And they had not parted that time on the best of terms. But still, when his father Olaf called, saying that he was dying and needed Noah's help, Noah left his Boston home, his business, his less than happy wife and made the long journey to the isolated Minnesota lakeside cabin where his father now lived, to help him.Noah arrives at the cabin, shocked at how bad his father looks. Yes, it seems that they will not have a lot of time to come to some sort of final understanding. In fact, the present days happening in the book takes place in less than two weeks and most of the story does not wander far from the lakeside. But the full story reaches back decades, to 1967, to a terrible November storm on Lake Superior, when Olaf was one of only three survivors of the wreck of the ore ship Ragnarøk.It was an experience that had changed his life and not for the better. To make it simple, let me just say that I loved this book. Looking back at it, there is nothing I did not like about it, nothing lacking, nothing I would change, a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters, the setting, and the story are all excellent. In part, it is a tale about the estrangement of a father and son and their attempt at a reconciliation. But it is also the story of a man, now grown, coming to see that life is a lot more complex, a lot more nuanced, than how he saw things as a hurt child. The author, a Minnesota native, creates a wonderful setting for the story, from the city of Duluth, to stormy and dangerous Lake Superior in the midst of a terrible storm, to the rustic, cold and snowy lakeside cabin where the two men play out their last days together as winter approaches. It is a story about guilt and regret and failure, but ultimately about forgiveness and understanding and the strength of love, even an imperfectly expressed love. The characters are real and believable, and even with their flaws, very likable. The ending is sad (yes, it brought a tear to my eye) yet sweet and hopeful.Peter Geye, in this, his first novel, has created a moving, beautiful and haunting story, one that I totally recommend for your reading.
    • 5/5
      Non-spoiler review:When the characters linger long after the last page is read and the book is closed; and the scenes they inhabited flare up days later in a memory that is not your own, you know you've read something important. Safe From the Sea is such a book. Although Geye's writing style seemed a bit cold and stilted to me at the beginning, it warmed up by degrees as the story progressed. It was only later I realized the protagonist, Noah, was also warming up to his inner self and his father along the way. Even the distant-appearing father melted from his own cold and stilted persona into a warm human being as the writing became freer. Whether this was an intentional literary device or not ... it was genius. Geye has the coveted and rare ability to transport the reader to places unfamiliar on many levels and yet make him or her feel at home. I experienced Geye's Minnesota locations as if I'd been seeing them with my own eyes, feeling the cold as well as the emotions. This is Geye's gift. The tale is an honest look into (not about) both an inner and an outer journey. It's also about communal and personal history. There's even an engaging overhanging element of suspense both in the father's and son's stories that keeps the reader turning pages. Writers who love reading and can remember the prologue will be in for a treat when they get to the last page.The only fault I can find, if there is one, is the occasional use of nautical terms which might be completely unfamiliar to anyone not raised around the shipping or boating industry. All in all, a tale well told.
    • 5/5
      As a native Minnesota of Scandinavian heritage, I absolutely loved this book. It captured so much of the spirit and struggle of a family. Geye does a great job of setting the scene and creating real dialogue among the central characters. Even if one has not visited Lake Superior, Duluth, or the range, the reader will be captivated and feel the experience.I strongly recommend this book to other readers and will cherish it.
    • 4/5
      This was a wonderful 'first novel' from a very talented author. It tells the story of a father and son who had been estranged for years but finally get back together at the end of the father's life. The description of the father's seafaring life on the Great Lakes is astonishing and made me want to go see these lakes for myself. They must be beautiful! A sad moving story but also a story that you will remember for a long time. Hope this author has another novel in the making!
    • 5/5
      This book is very well written and i connected with it immediately. I received it as part of the Early Reviewers program and feel like I got an early Christmas gift! It is a beautiful story with realistic characters and well-crafted scenes. This story is the first in a long time where I really saw the environment in my mind's eye and would be able to recognize even incidental characters if I was to meet them on the street. I carried this book with me to a doctor's appointment, new and unread, and found myself growing aggravated at the doctor for interrupting such a good story. I went home and finished the book the same evening. The main storyline is about the relationship of a son and father, estranged for years. The reader is introduced to the unnamed father first when he is young and the captain of a tanker on Lake Superior, full of pride for his work and his newborn son, Noah.Then we are introduced to Noah, now a grown man, embarrassed by his father's alcoholism and living far away in Boston. His father, Olaf Torr, calls and asks him to come back to help him winterize his cabin. Noah reluctantly returns because his father says he is ill. Noah finds this to be true. He also finds that his father is not the man he last saw at his wedding five years prior. The emotional development in the latter stages of Olaf's life in regards to each other, to Noah's mother, and to events in Olaf's past make this story full and rewarding to read.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. In fact, I could have given it a positive review after only a couple chapters. At first I thought that maybe it was because I'm from MN and live in Boston. The two locations discussed in the book but, that had very little to do with it. The fact is that this is an exceptionally told story about the power of family. It had me crying more than smiling but it's a story that I will remember for a long, long time.
    • 5/5
      I could not put this book down. I read it in a twenty four hour time span. It was beautiful!!! Geye painted the scenery so accurately, I felt I was in that cabin in the woods. Lake Superior in all it's splendor came through. The story is so well written, the father and son relationship, the realtionship between Noah and his wife, all so believable and perfect. I was fascinated with the story of the Ragnorak and the shipping life on the Great Lakes. I grew up 20 minutes from Lake Michigan and the lakes hold a spot in my memory. I can't say enough about this book. Great for book clubs.
    • 4/5
      Noah Torr returns to his dying father after years of estrangement. For the first time, Noah is told the whole story of how his father Olaf survived the wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat thirty five years earlier and the truth that has haunted him as one of only three survivors. This begins a reconciliation between the two and, out of this bonding, Noah is able to carry out his father’s dying wish.The author captures the raw beauty and coldness of a rugged Northern Minnesota winter. While the novel centers around the sinking of the Ragnarok, the real story is Olaf and Noah’s troubled relationship and how it changed from awkwardness to intimacy.
    • 5/5
      Peter Geye’s debut novel is one of the best I’ve read in a long time. Conflict between father and son is nothing new but the reason behind Geye’s characters’ estrangement is heartbreaking and tragic. Noah’s understanding of his father is rooted in his childhood version. He believes that what he knows of his father from growing up with and without him is the truth. And on the surface it is. But there’s another side to the story – his father’s side. Noah and his father give each other a last gift of truth and understanding – the story of before and after the disaster on Lake Superior. In doing so they are both free to move forward.Geye’s wonderful description of the Lake Superior shore, the ore boat Ragnarøk, and the family cabin pulled me into the novel. He tells a riveting story of not only an epic storm but also of people whose lives were forever changed.
    • 5/5
      In that instant he realized – almost as if he’d always been aware of the fact – that his father’s story mattered only if Noah could someday tell it himself, to a son or daughter, to another Torr who could keep it alive – here, on a blustery November night – for a third generation. – from Safe From The Sea, page 120 -Thirty-five years after surviving the wreck of his Great Lakes ore boat (the Ragnarok), Olaf Torr is facing his own mortality…this time from cancer. He contacts his estranged son, Noah, and asks him to come back to Minnesota, to the old cabin in the wilderness where Noah’s childhood memories lay. Safe From the Sea is the story of a father and son who travel from estrangement towards forgiveness; it is the story of a shipwreck and a man who survived it; but more importantly, it is about family connection and the way stories bind us from one generation to the next.When Noah arrives in the wilds of Minnesota, everything is the same, yet everything has changed. There is a story he wants to hear – that of the wreck of the Raganok, a story which has only been partially exposed in the annals of history, a story about what his father experienced on that cold, icy night back in November of 1967.“We took a couple more waves before we got on course, but we did manage to get turned around. We were looking at two and a half hours,” Olaf mused. “Two and a half, maybe three. That’s nothing. It’s the amount of time it takes to play a baseball game or drive from Duluth to Misquah. It’s nothing.”“But it was too long,” Noah said. – from Safe From the Sea, page 96 -Intertwined in the story of the wreck is Noah’s history with his father and how that history has impacted his present life. Noah begins to re-examine he and his wife Natalie’s struggle with infertility and the stress that places on a marriage. As Olaf’s life winds down, Noah discovers that his and Natalie’s lives are just beginning.Peter Geye’s debut novel is stunning and gorgeously written. The story of the Raganok is spell-binding, but it is the moments of introspection which I enjoyed the most. The backdrop of the Minnesota wilderness, the approach of winter, the howling of the wolves across the lake – all of it works to create an unforgettable novel of a father and son who come to recognize that what connects them is stronger than what has divided them.Would it have been better if his father had died on that night all those years ago? Whether this last was said or only thought he did not know, but soberer for it having crossed his mind, he forgave the old man all at once. Forgave him everything. He wondered whether his father would forgive him.In the spirit of being his father’s son, he walked back up to the cabin in his boots alone. - from Safe From The Sea, page 136 -Taken from an old Norse myth, the name of the ill-fated ore boat the Raganok defines the major theme of the novel – that despite disaster (or maybe because of it) there is hope in the future, that out of tragedy there may be rebirth. It is this idea of redemption and forgiveness which permeates Safe From The Sea.I read much of this book out loud to Kip as we drove across the country together. The poetry of Geye’s writing, along with the dramatic story of a tragic wreck combined to make this one of the best books I’ve read this year. Literary fiction lovers who also appreciate great adventure stories will love this novel.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      As I opened the first few pages of Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye I could almost feel the chill in the air and smell the scent of the sea. The book opens with a prologue where we are sharing a moment on the midnight watch on the ore boat Ragnarok with the wheelsman and the officer in charge, some 20 nautical miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula in water a hundred and fifty fathoms deep. There is a quiet to the moment as the captain reflects on the beauty of the sky before them and the birth of his son. There is a sadness to the moment too, as the captain reflects that his son was born just nine days ago, and here he was sailing away... The officer is Olaf, and the son born just nine days ago is Noah. It is their relationship, or lack of relationship, that makes Safe from the Sea such a powerful story. There is a yearning that comes across as Olaf and Noah struggle to reconcile their feelings as Olaf tells his son that he is dying.The story is powerful, and Peter Geye's writing is wonderful, with the emotionally charged dynamics between father and son, Olaf and Noah, subtlety floating off the pages. The story moves along with vignettes of Olaf and Noah in happier times, as Noah is growing up. It's these vignettes that pack a powerful punch as you contrast them against the present day, and wonder how a relationship can just slip away...Part of the story in Safe from the Sea deals with Olaf sharing with Noah what actually happened on the Ragnark. When Olaf recounts the terrible wreck of the Ragnark, the ore boat Olaf was officer on, not only was Noah on the edge of his seat listening, so was I! What fantastic storytelling! You almost feel as though you are in that terrible storm, aboard the Ragnark. And that's one of the gifts of Peter Geye's writing- he can paint such meaningful images & feelings with his words.Take a journey with a father and son as they discover if they have the ability to forgive... in a broken down house deep in the woods... with the memory of the past holding them together. Listen to the story of the shipwreck, the ships that sail the seas, and life onboard a ship... Listen to your heart as Noah also deals with the impending death of his father...I enjoyed Safe from the Sea so much! Beautiful prose and a wonderful story
    • 3/5
      Minneapolis born Peter Geye paints a clear picture of the Great Lakes shipping industry on the cold Minnesota north shore in his debut novel, Safe from the Sea. You will feel the frigid sea air whip around your ears, taste the smoked salmon, smell the wood smoke as a father and son reunite after thirty-five years of estrangement. Norwegian immigrant, Olaf, doles out his bitterness and guilt about surviving a shipwreck to his son in small doses as they share everyday tasks like splitting wood and fishing.Mr. Geye writes touching descriptions. Well-drawn scenes are Noah’s discomfiture at following the directions to his father’s house, the boyhood memories that flood him as he pokes around his father’s shack and Olaf returning childhood mementos to his children. The lack of cell phone reception at his father’s home mirrors the strained communication between Noah and his wife, Natalie.More eloquence permeates what is not said than what is. Although the dialogue is somewhat stagnant and slows the plot, certain parts of the narrative are haunting. Noah visits the maritime museum and views the artifacts and photos from the shipwreck around which the secret of the book lies. Particularly unforgettable is the placard beside a photo identifying the thirty shipmates before they sailed. The voices of the twenty-seven men, who lost their lives when the SS Ragmarok foundered in a gale in 1967, echo through the museum. Stormy Lake Superior provides a perfect metaphor for the ravaged lives of the three survivors who vanished when the ship went down.Safe from the Sea is about reminiscence, broken familial relationships and reconciliation.Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
    • 5/5
      Sometimes a book unexpectedly crosses your path and it turns out to be so incredibly fantastic you can't help suggesting it to everyone that you know. This is such a book for me. You like cookbooks? Read this one! You like mysteries? Read this one! You hate to read? Don't care; read this one! And before we go any further, I should say that this is neither a cookbook nor a mystery. There is no food in it, at least not that I recall. And there is no mystery either. You know from the beginning the outcome of the maritime disaster. But the prose and the atmospheric setting and the characters and just everything are so amazingly wrought that I can't stop raving.Noah has been estranged from his father for five years when he gets a taciturn call asking him to come and help his father ready the cabin for the winter, no apology, no bridging of the estrangement, no further information. Somehow he knows that he cannot and should not say no despite the fact that Noah and his wife are trying and not succeeding at having a baby which is casting a shadow over their marriage, a shadow that this seperation might not be able to overcome. And yet Olaf's summons must be heeded.Olaf is dying and while he wants Noah to care for him in his last weeks, he is also looking to atone, not only for being one of only three survivors from the epic shipwreck of the ore freighter Ragnarok, but also for the shipwreck of his life and family. As Noah helps his father shore up the cabin against the heavy, cold northern Minnestoa winter, he also learns the story of the wreck of the Ragnarok, not as the newspapers reported it but from the perspective of his father. And he comes to understand who his father is, the man that he was capable of being, and the reason for the gulf between that idealized, perhaps longed-for father and the actual father of his childhood. Their relationship is gruff and silent and loaded with portents and recrimination and the weeks of shoring up the cabin don't change that. But the depth of emotion and the conflict of father and son is riveting throughout the surreal narration.Geye's writing in this first novel is superb and even sublime. The inferno raging below the frozen, flexing decks invokes the imagery of Hell and the forsaken, an apt allegory for Olaf's life. It is an exquisite and terrifying picture of the wreck which continues wreaking devastation throughout both Olaf and Noah's lives many years after the actual sinking of the ship. The clipped dialogue and the portrayal of the area is spot on, easily evoking the true to life culture and reverence surrounding shipwrecks found throughout the Great Lakes region. Everything about the novel was captivating to me, from the father-son dynamics to the running of the freighters. And the theme of events, certainly catastrophic events but also simple ones, that forever change lives and relationships is monumental and artfully handled. I can't say it enough: read this book and revel in its beauty.
    • 4/5
      When Noah and his sister were young children their lives were forever changed when their father’s ore ship burned and sunk in the tormented waters of Lake Superior. Though their father survived, much of him was left behind when the ship went down, and Noah’s relationship with his father would never be the same. Decades later, when Noah is grown man with a wife living in Boston, his father becomes ill and Noah faces a tough choice: should he go to his father’s side? The man who shut him out and all but left him so many years ago? Journeying to the northern Minnesota town of his youth, Noah faces more than just his father when he arrives. History comes back as Noah confronts the man who changed so many years ago.Safe from the Sea is heartbreaking and sad, but also cathartic. Noah must deal with many issues by choosing to face his father again: guilt, blame, and a deeply rooted anger. The bond of family, for better or worse, makes us who we are, and Noah is the man he is today because of his relationship with his father. This is the story of a man facing his past, for both Noah and his father.It’s hard for me to review this novel because I’m torn in two directions. First is my loyalty to my own past, which also came from Minnesota. Geye’s writing of the north and the harsh winters carries true emotional weight. Likewise, my whole family is also in Minnesota, while I am also in Boston, much like Noah and his family are parted. Though I didn’t leave under the same circumstances and return often, the bond Noah has to Minnesota touched my heart.The other direction I am pulled in is that of a reviewer analyzing a novel. It’s not because this is Geye’s first novel that I feel why I do, because I read many first novels, but the writing of Safe from the Sea didn’t grab me the way I wish it had. The topics did, the scenes and places, but the dialogue felt forced, and parts of Noah’s relationship with his father and wife seemed contrived. Here is a situation where a man is facing the person who destroyed him and tore him apart. I see the word “anger” but I do not feel it. I see a scene of “longing” and “regret” but do not feel those sensations. There was more true emotion in the description of snow and ice than in the setup of Noah and his relationships, and that’s the one fallback of the book.