March 2018 Book of the Month
What a beautifully written, captivating, and soulful read this is. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, newly transferred, begins to investigate the death of a women found in fishing nets out at sea. Catherine Day leaves Montreal for a remote fishing village, looking for answers about her birth mother. The Gaspe Peninsula sits centre stage in the story, remote, set apart, and yet intimately connected to the sea. I immediately fell headlong into the story, the seamless translation encourages the words to join together, creating a vividly stunning picture. Catherine tells her own tale, having such personal access allows a connection, yet she still feels hidden from view. Other peoples thoughts tumble freely over the pages, yet they belong, they anchor the story. I felt that the author Roxanne Bouchard has a profound connection to the sea, she loves it, respects it, yet the immense power simmers, occasionally rages in the background. I quite simply adored ‘We Were the Salt of the Sea’, refreshingly different, unpredictable, yet deeply rich and touching, it became a part of me.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
The sea is calling and draws us in.
This book is a crime story, a mystery, a love story written in a literary but accessible style. There is a body, a daughter looking for her birth mother and a man who is doubting the continuation of his thirty year marriage. Their stories are interlaced with the lives of others living in a small community on the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. And finally, there is the sea—captured with beautiful prose, waves gently breaking, sometimes crashing, which Bouchard captures perfectly as she draws the reader in to become part of the Canadian landscape.
The novel is written from the perspectives of several Point Of View characters which is difficult to follow at first and, in my view, slows down the earlier chapters as we are introduced to them.... Read Full Review
Lyric ode to the sea wrapped up in a dark crime novel of a woman's search for her birth mother and the mysterious death of another.
This elegiac novel follows the time spent by its Montreal heroine Catherine in the remote fishing village of Caplan on Quebec’s outlying Gaspe Peninsula. She is not only searching for her birth mother after the death of the couple who were her legal guardians, but also trying to find real meaning for her life. At the same time, the Detective Sergeant, Joaquin Morales, also newly arrived from Montreal, has to try to resolve the mystery of the death of the woman dredged up in the nets of one of the local fishermen.
Roxanne Bouchard’s interweaving of these two strands results in a complex story, with a full cast of intriguing characters. The truth about the life of the dead beauty, Marie Garant, and her interactions with many of the members of the Gaspe community proves intricate, difficult to disentangle... Read Full Review
A novel which stirs many emotions, turns many pages and leaves you wishing the author hadn't concluded it so early.
Despite being an avid reader, the only books I had previously read set in Canada were crime novels by Kathy Reichs featuring Dr Brennan, so I was keen to read this.
Thankfully I wasn't disappointed by this novel. The style of writing was different to any other book I've read, but I really enjoyed it.
The story flows well as we meet Catherine Day, the fishermen and other residents of the Gaspe Peninsula, including the newly arrived Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales.
I found myself eagerly turning the pages as the author slowly fed more little snippets about the main characters, whilst making the sea appear simultaneously beautiful and dangerous.
Despite Catherine being the main character from the start of the novel, the person I felt I knew the most by the end of the novel was DS Morales.... Read Full Review
