Howard Norman discovered Nova Scotia in the late 1960s while a graduate student working on a folklore project at Indiana University. He's been returning ever since because of his attachment to it. He shares stories with us that he has learned from the locals as well as from his own personal encounters. There is a small thread which each seemingly unrelated story to the other. While I enjoyed Norman's writing, I wasn't particularly drawn into his style of writing. My favorite story was the first which was largely a collection of previously unpublished letters shared with him by the letter writer's sister. Persons with an interest in Joseph Conrad, Elizabeth Bishop, or birding may enjoy the stories featuring each. ( )

I discovered this book while searching for potential reads for the Canadian Fiction/Non-Fiction Reading Challenge. If not for the reading challenge, I don't think this book would have ever crossed my radar, and I would have missed out on a rich experience.

A lot of people have a second place that creeps into their hearts, as deep or sometimes deeper than home. For me, that place is London. For my mother, it was New Zealand. For my sister-in-law, it's Italy. For a good, friend, it's Boston. For a co-worker, it's Charleston. For author Howard Norman, it's Nova Scotia. He concludes his introduction with these words:

Nova Scotia is strange in my life: It provides a sudden noir of the heart, just as it does the deepest calm. Emotions seesaw. There are exhaustions and exhilarations in all of this, love and confusion, obsession and wonder. Nova Scotia has long been for me the one place I get the uncanny sense of missing, even as I am firmly standing on its ground, breathing its air, squinting against its hard sunlight off water. Just as I miss Nova Scotia this very moment as I write. Halifax, 2003

Norman shows us his Nova Scotia in four essays, or vignettes. Although in a list the topics appear unrelated, Norman segues smoothly from one to another, just like a get-together among friends where something about one story triggers a memory for someone else, who then tells another story, and so on, until it's finally time to go home.

After reading this book, I've added a number of other books to my "must read" list: Joseph Conrad's Nostramo and Twixt Land and Sea, Elizabeth Bishop's Complete Poems and Collected Prose, and of course, other books by Howard Norman. I often trade or give away books I've read. This is one I'll keep. I'll carry it with me if I'm ever fortunate enough to go to Nova Scotia.

Who should read this book? People who love Nova Scotia. Howard Norman fans. Joseph Conrad fans. Elizabeth Bishop fans. Robert Frank fans. Birders. People who enjoy literary travel writing. Highly recommended. ( )