Making It Home

by Alison DeLory

Tinker Gordon doesn't want anything to change. He thinks that if he holds on tightly enough, his family, his tiny Cape Breton Island community, his very world will stay exactly the way it has always been. But explosions large and small—a world away, in the Middle East, in the land of opportunity in western Canada, and in his own home in Falkirk Cove—threaten to turn everything Tinker has ever known upside down.

Set variously in the heart of rural Cape Breton, on the war-torn streets of Aleppo and in a Turkish refugee camp, in the new wild west frontier of the Alberta oil patch, and in a tiny apartment in downtown Toronto, Tinker's family, friends, and neighbours new and old must find a way to make it home.

In her adult fiction debut, Alison DeLory ponders a question as relevant in Atlantic Canada as anywhere in the world: where and how do we belong, and what does it take to make it home?

Genres: Book Club, Canada, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2019

About the author

I am a freelance journalist, editor, and part-time writing instructor. I enjoy all forms of creative and nonfiction writing. My children’s novel, Lunar Lifter, was published in 2012. It's sequel, Scotia Sinker, was published in 2015. My Fierce Short story, Some of My Parts, was published in November 2013.

Reviews

[Anne O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pulled into this story from page one and found the characters very relatable. I had done some work with the Syrian refugees during the time the story was set and found DeLory's characterizations and situational descriptions accurate (from my limited knowledge), powerful and believable. The parallel stories were skillfully woven together and the delicacy of describing the human tragedy of war was handled well. I would highly recommend Making it Home and hope that it will not only be read and enjoyed by many but also help bring more attention to the plight of refugees and keep the conversation going.

[Chris]

More than a decade ago, while working at a newspaper in Ghana, I wrote a story about the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, which is home to more than 12,000 Liberian refugees who fled civil war, though many were born in the camp. My story focused on a dozen local chiefs, each of whom represented a warring group back in Liberia. They met weekly, like a city council, to talk about peace and community building for the miniature city their people had created in a new country.

It was positive, what they were doing, much like Sami’s efforts to doctor the sick in the Turkish camp featured in Making It Home. But they, and Sami, duty-bound, were making the best out of an unfathomably difficult situation; their true homes had been quite literally destroyed. There was nothing to go back to. Survival, and hope for a better future, was all that was left.

Of course that got me thinking about our current situation, in which essential workers must take significant risks. The rest of us simply must stay home. None of it is easy, and I don’t mean to downplay the impacts that feeling under virtual house arrest can have, the extreme stress it sometimes causes, the mental-health fallout. But reading Making It Home refreshed my gratitude that I have a home where I can stay, and that I am with people who love me.

DeLory plots her debut novel perfectly, incorporating remarkably diverse perspectives seamlessly, balancing different cultural and gendered perspectives, and bringing the stories together for an ending in which every character shares, in their own way, that same refreshed appreciation for home.

More at https://atlanticbookstoday.ca/reading....

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the characters in Making it Home by Alison DeLory are unsettled or displaced by forces beyond their control and must find a way to cope with momentous and even catastrophic change in their lives. It is 2014, and in Falkirk Cove, on Cape Breton Island, pig-headed Tinker Gordon does not welcome change. A retired fisherman, happily married to Flo, he is still mourning the loss of their son Russell, who in 2009 moved to Alberta for work and was killed in an industrial accident. When Russell’s son Charlie informs his grandfather that he’s also heading west in pursuit of a job, Tinker responds churlishly, as if Charlie’s action is a betrayal and not a response to real-life pressures. In Alberta, Charlie finds work, but not everything goes according to plan, and for a while he falls out of contact with his grandparents, who naturally worry. Meanwhile, Tinker and Flo are contacted by a woman from Toronto named Courtney, who informs them that she is the mother of Russell’s son Alex, who is five. Flo is delighted to learn that she is a grandmother again and that Charlie has a half-brother, but Tinker is suspicious and unwilling to accept Courtney's claims at face value. Meanwhile, in war-ravaged Syria, Sami, a doctor, Amira, his pregnant wife, and their young son and daughter are forced by the fighting to abandon their home in Aleppo and make their way to the border. After some tense moments, they pass into Turkey, where they end up in cramped, uncomfortable quarters in a refugee camp facing an uncertain future. Back in Cape Breton, Alex visits Flo and Tinker and wins their hearts, Charlie returns home, and a movement begins to raise money in order to bring a Syrian refugee family to Falkirk Cove, a project to which Flo enthusiastically devotes herself but which Tinker has difficulty accepting because of a prejudice against the unknown and an inherently stick-in-the-mud nature. DeLory tells a multi-faceted story in a straightforward manner, both chronologically and dramatically, in numerous brief chapters and using unadorned prose. The action, which centres around the universal struggle that all people face to make a better life for themselves, moves briskly along toward a satisfying denouement. The scenes set in Syria and Turkey are particularly effective and heart-rending. In her debut novel, DeLory writes convincingly and with confidence from multiple points of view and generates great empathy for her characters. As a work of fiction, Making it Home does not break new ground. It is occasionally predictable and is not entirely devoid of sentiment. But the story it tells is a very human one: compelling, timely and necessary.

[Peter Moreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really ambitious first novel, and Alison Delory is to be congratulated on tackling four such vastly different settings -- Cape Breton, Alberta, Syria and Turkey -- in a single novel. She has captured these places wonderfully and populated them with vivacious characters whose lives the reader cares about. I'm waiting anxiously for her next novel.

[Lyn Thomson]

I received an ARC of this book through the Dartmouth Book Exchange's book club and found it an enjoyable read from page one, not a book to make me stay up all hours to find out what happened and then forget, but one to read in spare moments and ponder. Taking place in Cape Breton, Ontario, Alberta, Syria, and Turkey, it follows the stories of connected and mostly believable characters. Many Maritimers have lost family members to opportunities abounding in richer provinces; some of us have been delighted to share our empty nests with grandchildren, even unexpected ones. We all know and appreciate a character like Roger who can tell us what weekday we were born just by knowing our birthdates. Most of us have seen love fade into shadows to be reborn as a new love; surely we all have heard discriminatory comments spoken by people we know. We remember Syrian refugees and rafts lost in desperate crossings at sea, and a good number of us have fund-raised to help give them homes in our safer country. Reading the book as I did during the invasion of Ukraine, the plight of the Syrian refugees in their uncertain escapes and their subsequent lives in white tent cities was brought back to the present, hitting home in a disturbing way. The characters and situations seemed familiar if predictable, while the idea of what makes a place home held the diverse stories together. I enjoyed the book and recommend it.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a lovely read. I think this would be a good read-alike for Donna Morrisey fans.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. The characters get you from the beginning and the story unfolds at a nice pace.

[Jim Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rating this a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. There were parts I "really liked" and there were parts I didn't like as much. Full review: bit.ly/makingithome

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done. Congratulations Alison

[Larissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Making it Home by Alison DeLory last month with my book club. I am always drawn to books set locally to me and while this one is set several hours from where I live, it is from my home province. So that was a huge plus for me.

Set in a Cape Breton, NS (as well as Alberta, Toronto, Syria, and Turkey), this book follows a community of people as they work through internal struggles and within their own families. During the course of their growth on the story, they also start to work toward sponsoring a refugee family from Syria. Part so the story also features the Syrian family, their escape from war torn Syria and lives in the Turkish refugee camp.

With all the different pieces, characters, and story-lines of this book, I was worried we wouldn’t get an ending that pulled them all together. I was pleasantly surprised when, just as the end of the story arrived, the author did just that while also leaving it open ended enough to feel like what we got was a glimpse into these characters lives but their lives would indeed continue on once we finished reading. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next book on the Stay Home and Read Atlantic was this debut novel set in Cape Breton, Syria, Turkey, Fort Mac, and Toronto. I find it difficult to write about this story. I can't put a finger on it as I did find it entertaining and the Cape Breton setting is very appealing for me. Regrettably, the story is told in a very plain, matter of fact manner lacking the expected charm. Most of the characters were very unlikable with exceptions being the noble Dr. Sami and brilliant Roger. Speaking of Dr. Sami, the story of the Syrian family was compelling, current, and harrowing. The plight of Amira was especially dire. But, once again, the story telling was so matter of fact and predictable that it diminished the narrative. It may have been deliberately written this way due to the subject matter but it just didn't work for me.

P.S. Making it Home has piqued my interest in reading more stories about the Syrian refugee experience of coming to Nova Scotia. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked the book up because my library is pushing Reading Atlantic, so I thought I might as well try the ebook out. At the beginning I wasn't getting into the book. But as the story continued I was getting swept up in it. I like that there were many different characters with different viewpoints. And even the ones who annoyed me I still liked hearing from. I was surprised when a certain development towards the end even made me feel sad.

While I overall enjoyed it, certain things I would have preferred is the Syrian family perhaps arriving a smidge earlier to Canada so we could gave seen them adjust to it more. And, while this may just be me, I would have liked if one character did leave and not come back (because not all do). And finally, there's one characters motive who I think could have been explored/laid out more. I felt like she had a reason for her feelings/actions but she was portrayed fairly negatively for just not fitting in. And in general I just didn't like that.

[Margaret Arab Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this, especially as the story and characters developed. It was a window of Nova Scotian time and only a few years ago but this story brought it all back clearly: people back and forth to Alberta, addictions, horror at the Syrian war and refugee crisis, Syrian families beginning to arrive and then many more arriving, our schools preparing for refugees who had been through much, the children growing and learning, varied initial opinions while the new became part of our tapestry and so much more that we take for granted.

[Annika Voltan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, which weaves together two families across the world from each other. It was easy to get into and kept me entertained. While parts of the content are challenging it was generally heartwarming and a good reminder of how fiction can be used to educate about relevant issues of the day. As someone from Nova Scotia the local references also resonated. I recommend it!

[Emma Côté · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've moved around a lot in my life, so the concept of 'home' has weighed heavily on my mind at times. This was such a beautiful portrait of the many ways we can go about nuturing a sense of belonging.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read! Can't wait to read more in the future by Alison DeLory

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading stories that take place in areas that I can relate to. This one also had a story line that was very familiar to me. Well written, it was hard to put down. Hope there will be a sequel.

[Kelly Greenwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adapting to change in rural Cape Breton, several families find their way through changing circumstances.