Berth

by Carol Bruneau

Berth is the story of thirty-something Willa's flight from a military marriage to the romance of life with Hugh, a lightkeeper on an island in Halifax Harbour. Set in 1987, the story begins with Willa's move to the nearby base, where her husband Charlie works aboard the Sea King helicopters. Charmed by Hugh's lifestyle, Willa moves in with him, taking her ten-year-old son, Alex. Hugh's job is endangered by the encroaching automation of the lighthouses, but he clings to his way of life ― despite suspicions that the house in which he lives and which contains the light is contaminated by the mercury in the light, an occupational hazard. From the outset, the affair is complicated by Willa's motherhood, and the island, once a remote paradise, soon reveals itself as the military's dumping grounds. The reality of life there sets in, posing a threat not just to romance, but to Willa's sanity. The novel explores the human propensity to seek greener pastures, and, by turn, to suffer the dangers of the status quo. It's about idealism ― the purity of love and nature, and their defilement, and the survival of both, however diminished, in a fallen world.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published August 30, 2005

About the author

Carol Bruneau is the author of nine books: three short fiction collections and six novels, including Brighten the Corner Where You Are (Fall 2020) and A Circle on the Surface (2018.) Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won the 2001 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award. She lives with her husband in Halifax.

Reviews

[Lori Bamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't enamored with the writing style of this author -- for me, too much dialogue that didn't feel quite authentic, too many adjectives, way too many "like the's" ("a cormorant, its skinny neck and bill like the mouthpiece of Hugh's sax," "the branches bowed like fishing poles").

But the story! I was mesmerized from beginning to end: a young mother, starved for affection, falls for a mysterious charmer who offers the promise of a richer life and a more loving, connected relationship. It was only at the end (no spoilers) that I realized that, changing a few details, it was my story too, and in various iterations, a common and timeless story.

(It reminds me of that wonderful advice: Dad, if you want to do what's best for your children, love their mother.)

[Alison DeLory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in Halifax and have always been fascinated with the barely inhabited or populated island in our harbor, McNab's Island, so I particularly enjoyed that this book was largely set on its desolate shores. The main character makes some horrendous decisions that annoyed me, but I came to understand her better as the book progressed. It is essentially a story of loneliness and isolation, with a mystery and the possibility of violence always lurking. Carol Bruneau is a lovely person and sensitive writer who once again delivers a compelling book.

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early 5 star stuff from Carol Bruneau, an underrated East coast author, who went on to write more novels and short stories.
A tense one, Berth is!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willa and her son, Alex (whom everyone calls "Sonny"), are constantly on the move, following her husband who works as a helicopter mechanic on various military bases. He's an absentee father - when he comes home in the evening he just watches tv or spends hours in the basement, alone. And because Willa is always being uprooted, she has no firm friends and lives in isolation.

Now in Halifax, Willa's eye is caught by the sax player at the New Year's Eve party for the Forces, and a few days later bumps into him at the supermarket and then at a Tim Hortons. Perhaps it's a simple matter of a lonely woman seeking companionship and appreciation, but Willa is attracted to Hugh with a kind of 'young lover's blush'. He lives on a small island and mans the coast's lighthouse. It's not long before Willa decides to leave husband Charlie and takes Sonny with her to live with Hugh on the island. It's a wild, weather-cursed place, with an underground, disused bunker left over from the days when the military used it. Dead bodies - 'jumpers' from the bridge - wash up on the shore. The mercury in the light seems to be making Hugh sick. And Willa suspects Hugh's friend Wayne was involved in the disappearance of the previous lighthouse keeper's daughter.

Willa is not an instantly sympathetic character. At times her apparent lack of assertion and confidence is frustrating, and the mystery of the missing girl is never quite explained. Lighthouses pop up in many books, often for symbolic purposes, but in Berth it takes on a more sinister darkness. This is a novel of harsh, gritty reality, peopled with lonely, often unlikable characters, yet it's these qualities, and the oftimes ghostly tone, that makes this book worth reading.