Alistair Macleod - No Great Mischief
The only novel by Canadian short story writer Alistair MacLeod (described by the New York Times as the most underrated fiction writer of the 20th century), No Great Mischief follows the story of a family from their Scottish Highland roots to present-day Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It’s one of those layered, complex novels that jumps around in place and time, and it asks a lot of questions about “home” and the ties that bind us to the places where we make our lives. A passage where one of the youngest daughters returns to Scotland (a couple of centuries after her ancestors left) and forms an almost mystical connection with a distant relative left me determined to do the same. (I’ve since made the trek to the highland village where my family farmed and hunted 300+ years ago, and while no mystical experience resulted it was still a fascinating trip.)