Safe from the Sea »

Peter Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PHD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He was born and raised in Minneapolis and continues to live there with his wife and three children. This is his first novel.

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.

Library Journal

In this deeply moving, powerfully realized debut novel, an estranged father and son find reconciliation in the final week of the father's life. Under the pressure of a terminal illness, the two finally speak honestly about their dreams, regrets, and choices. Setting his book almost entirely in the father's ramshackle cabin near Duluth, MN, Geye tackles the subjects of death, dying, and living with admirable insight and courage. Olaf, the father, is a curmudgeonly, headstrong former ship's captain who was one of three survivors from a massive coal freighter that sank on Lake Superior. Olaf lost many close friends and was haunted for the rest of his life by the memory of one friend he felt he could have saved. This event had catastrophic repercussions for his young family. VERDICT Geye engages the complexities of family dynamics skillfully and handles especially well the kind of family grudges and misunderstandings that can cripple relationships for decades, as they do here. Inspiring, wise, and enthusiastically recommended for all readers.—Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT