Rent What Is Left the Daughter

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges—the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.

Setting in motion the novel's chain of life-altering passions and the wartime perfidy at its core is the arrival of the German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidents—including a German U-boat's sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferryCaribou—lend intense narrative power to Norman's uncannily layered story.

Wyatt's account of the astonishing events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later.What Is Left the Daughteris Howard Norman at his celebrated best.

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