The Difference

by Marina Endicott

From one of our most critically acclaimed and beloved storytellers comes a sweeping novel set on board the Morning Light , a Nova Scotian merchant ship sailing through the south pacific in 1912. Kay and Thea are half-sisters, separated in age by almost twenty years, but deeply attached. When their stern father dies, Thea returns to Nova Scotia for her long-promised marriage to the captain of the Morning Light. But she cannot abandon her orphaned young sister, so Kay too embarks on a life-changing voyage to the other side of the world.At the heart of The Difference is a crystallizing moment in Thea, still mourning a miscarriage, forms a bond with a young boy from a remote island and takes him on board as her own son. Over time, the repercussions of this act force Kay, who considers the boy her brother, to examine her own assumptions--which are increasingly at odds with those of society around her--about what is forgivable and what is right.Inspired by a true story, Endicott shows us a now-vanished world in all its wonder, and in its darkness, prejudice and difficulty, too. She also brilliantly illuminates our present time through Kay's examination of the idea of difference--between people, classes, continents, cultures, customs and species. The Difference is a breathtaking novel by a writer with an astonishing ability to bring past worlds vividly to life while revealing the moral complexity of our own.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Canada, Audiobook, Historical, Book Club, Travel

392 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Marina Endicott was born in Golden, BC, and grew up with three sisters and a brother, mostly in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director before going to England, where she began to write fiction. After London she went west to Saskatoon, where she was dramaturge at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre for many years before going farther west to Mayerthorpe, Alberta; she now lives in Edmonton. Her first novel, Open Arms, was short-listed for the Amazon/Books In Canada First Novel award in 2002. Her second, Good to a Fault, was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize and won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, Canada/Caribbean region. The Little Shadows, her latest book, longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, was a finalist for this year’s Governor General’s Award and will be published in the UK and Australia in spring 2012. She is at work on a new novel, Hughtopia.

Reviews

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent a long time reading this one, longer than I normally seem to spend reading a book - and I didn't mind one bit, I never felt I had to hurry it along, or hoped for it to hurry up and end, I simply enjoyed every chance I was able to spend reading it. There are many things to say about how wonderful this story was: the whales, the people, the writing, the story....I found this to be extremely companionable to Michael Crummey The Innocents for reasons I cannot properly articulate. And as I reached the end, I realized it is extremely companionable as well to William Kent Krueger This Tender Land - another immensely satisfying and enjoyable coming-of-age story, with every bit the same adventure feelings, Odyssey-like, reconciliation, redemption, residential-school details (and so many more things wonderfully examined and told inside).

Why has Endicott's book been overlooked this year for Canadian literary prizes like the Giller and the now too familiar list of books on the Writers' Trust award - it features a majority of the same titles as the Giller. I so sincerely hope the Governor General's Literary Awards remedy this with their upcoming announcement - both by including Endicott's book but also giving us a wider selection of great Canadian literature outside of the ones already nominated. There is room here for the inclusion of many other titles in CanLit and I really hope to see The Difference included!

[Patrick Book · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was somehow good but also boring. I wanted to like much of it but it felt like way too many potentially great ideas or elements were introduced that were only half-delivered or left a lot of promising aspects on the table.

[Maia Caron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would read Marina Endicott’s grocery list, so when a new novel comes from her, I can’t wait to read it. Although I loved her contemporary novels Good to a Fault and Close to Hugh, I’m glad she’s back with a historical novel. The Difference is a literary story that builds the kind of world that urges you to slow down and savour the myriad gifts it offers.

At a time when the natural world is in peril and species are going extinct every day, the author lovingly renders this story of how two very different sisters view the exotic world they discover on an ocean voyage, and the lasting impact of their moral choices. I had the delightful sense that I was reading a story that—although set in 1912 and 1922—captured the essence of climate change in a very organic way.

As another reviewer has mentioned, the scenes with whales in them are particularly wonderful. I appreciate how the author wove a story that included the residential school experience in Canada, which made it also feel like a read for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Highly recommend!

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway on Goodreads, from Penguin Random House / Knopf Canada!

I'll start by saying I'm not a boat person - I get seasick just looking at one. This book however, made it sound cozy, and a great adventure at the same time. Part One started out a bit slow, and I wasn't sure where the story was headed. We get to know Kay, the main character, her background living in an institution i.e. "school" run by her Father for First Nations children, cruelly taken from their families to be "educated". Kay was a young child at the time but still struggles greatly with what she witnessed there. She is now on a sea voyage with her older sister Thea, whose husband is the ship's captain. A decision is made by Thea - again, out of Kay's control - that troubles Kay.

Part Two, takes place approximately ten years later, and was faster paced. This is a good thing, as I was eager to find out how things would end, and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I would have liked to know what happens next, but I guess that is another story for another time.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Some reviewers have called the pace slow, but I prefer to describe it as unhurried. I was lulled by it - not to sleep but into a sense of peacefulness, as the Morning Light sailed gently on around the world. But there are also a couple of important philosophical questions to ponder: such as, is it ever morally right to separate a person from his or her family and culture?
The book is divided into two parts separated by eight years, and since this period includes the Great War, I would have liked more information about how the family, especially Francis (who is merely described as having fought in the war) coped. In fact, this potentially interesting character is not as fully drawn as the two sisters; a pity.
The author has, however, created a wonderful sense of time and place. I shall be metaphorically lying in a hammock on the Morning Light for some time to come.

[Nikki Byrne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book a bit of a chore. As someone who has traveled a lot I enjoyed the adventure and familiar destinations. But the writing style was too frilly and the story too disjointed. When it felt like something should happen it just continued to flatline.

Like many others I almost gave up several times. I will say that I’m glad I persevered as the last quarter of the book offered some resolution and brought meaning to earlier parts of the story.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

* I won a copy of this book from GoodReads first reads*
Beautifully written, but it starts out slow. Definitely suffers from having the major turning point of the novel revealed in the synopsis; I would have much preferred not to know what was coming. Once that event takes place, it seems like the story picks up steam.

[Shirley Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Morning Light set out from Yarmouth on the early tide and ran with a light wind south along the shore before reaching the open sea." And so begins the adventure with 12 year-old Kay and her sister Thea and Thea's new husband Francis. The time is 1911 and orphaned Kay is leaving on a sea adventure with her older sister who has raised her. Kay is like any twelve year old. She asks a lot of questions, and she has a very hard time understanding adult behaviour. But she is a little different than most twelve year olds too as she thinks more deeply and asks probing questions, and she loses her temper when she doesn't get truthful answers. Perhaps that is because she has grown up in a residential school where her father was headmaster. Kay saw inequality and prejudice where no one else saw it at that school, and the memories from that haunt her dreams at night. Now she begins her epic voyage halfway around the world, and the sights and places that she sees are astounding. Marina Endicott's prose is beautiful and descriptive so this book is a lot like a travelogue and because she is such a master with the English language it puts the reader right there with Kay. The second half of the book is ten years later and after the Great War, and Kay and her adopted brother are setting out on another sea adventure on their own. Kay is trying to right a wrong from ten years ago when her brother was purchased from some South Sea Island fisherman for four cans of tobacco. This is a beautifully written book that proceeds at a leisurely pace just like sailing proceeded at the turn of the 20th century. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the best sea adventures that I've ever read.

[kp · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absorbing book whose protagonist is richly limned. The novel is gentle and the setting shimmering with life, but it does have something to say about the arrogance, cruelty, and sorrow of colonialism. It's about guilt and love, but perhaps does not go far enough in confronting unshakable certainty that drives this domination of difference and the long-term ravages of taking land and children away from other people. Still, I was always eager to get back to the story and feel a little sad that I don't get to stay with the characters.

[Maheen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is definitely the most boring book I have read in a long time! I wanted to like it, and kept reading in the hope that at some point it would become interesting, but it just dragged and dragged and seemed to never come to an end! I honestly don't know how this book has an overall rating of 3.6 stars! I would give it a zero if there was that option.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thea walked everywhere, in every company, as the most superior person in the room. It was not egotistical of her, it was simply her perception of the reality of things, her calm understanding of the strength of her character and education and the protection of her religion.

Kay sees herself, however, “off to one side.” She’s passionate about very little except learning ancient Greek, an eminently useless language for a woman in the 1920s, and hasn’t enough life experience to understand how to do the right thing for Aron. The discussion of “white saviour,” although it’s not referred to as that, is immensely timely, and I can see some readers defending Thea and Francis for their actions and beliefs; but we are able to see, through Aren’s eyes, the damage and loss he suffers through their well-meaning but poorly thought-out actions. The Grants seem to enapsulate those people who felt that Indigenous children should have been grateful for their "rescue” from families and living situations that outsiders couldn’t comprehend. They take it a step further, feeling that love and kindness should make up completely for losing parents and community, metaphorically carving their initials on Aren much like Captain Cook did to the tortoise.
(That's an oversimplification on my part - for much more scholarly writing in this area, search out Jesse Wente's memoir and his review of the movie "Avatar.")
I thought it ironic that Kay decided to bring with her on her voyage the novel Penny Plain, considering its sanctimonious views on suffering and fulfillment clash so dramatically with her own views (perhaps it was given to her by Thea who seems to embody those views.) I loved Kay dearly and sincerely wished for a sequel to follow up on what she, and Aren, were doing.
The writing here is wonderful and there was a quotable gem on every page. One of my favourites was Kay’s description of sunglasses as “portable darkness."

After walking, they sat to rest on a litter of gold beneath an ancient ginkgo tree, said to be tree hundred years old, whose autumn drift of fan-shaped yellow leaves was the most beautiful thing Kay saw in China. “The earth repairs itself,” Thea said; Kay wondered how much damage it would take to be irreparable.

As they went farther and farther south, early morning were so good that Kay woke earlier and earlier, kneeling up on her bunk to peer out the tiny port window and see what the sea was doing in the dawn: melted silver, molten lead, shifting mercury, then warming and transfiguring into deepest green.

He took a step, as if he would walk down the garden but checked himself and stood motionless. Kay moved then, and went to him, but was afraid to put her arm around him in case he shook her off She stood beside him, waiting for him to think. Above them in the lacy trees, bats flitted like thoughts you could not quite remember.

Highly recommended.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multi-layered historical fiction inspired by an incident from the life of author Endicott’s childhood piano teacher’s family. Events open in 1912, on a long sea voyage of a merchant sailing ship (which would soon be displaced by the age of steamships). Thea and Kay are half-sisters with almost 20 years between them. Thea, at 30, has just married the sailing ship’s captain and chooses to join him on his voyage, and brings Kay, 12, with them when none of the elderly aunts in the family are able to care for her. Their father had been the head of a residential school in Alberta, and Kay still wakes up screaming from nightmares of her terrible memories of that place, where indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and taken to be educated and “civilized.” Kay saw the cruelties they were deliberately subjected to, and the dozens of children who died of privation, cold and hunger, taken in waves by tuberculosis in especially harsh winters. Thea had spent some time there as well, as a teacher, and forbids Kay to speak of the school, impatiently tight-lipped as she defends the good intentions of the religious/missionary underpinnings. But Kay can’t stop thinking about the school and considering it carefully. She struck this reader as implausibly “woke” for the period, but it wasn’t too jarring and was perhaps justified by her friendship with one of the dead children. Anyway, now they’re on this year-long sea voyage, where Kay is exposed to many new places and experiences, especially New Zealand and the South Seas. The central moment of the novel takes place in Micronesia when Thea, grieving a miscarriage, trades for a little boy and takes him aboard to raise him as her own. They finish the voyage and the action jumps 10 years forward to Yarmouth, their home. Kay, now 22, remains very nonconformist in thought and behaviour. Aren, the Micronesian boy the family adopted, has fared about as well as you might anticipate. Though he is loved as a son, he’s not well-accepted by the locals, and he’s left home to scrape by working on the docks in Halifax. Kay remains very troubled by what they’ve done to deform Aren’s life and is determined to try to put right what she can.

An interesting novel written in gorgeous, descriptive prose, full of fascinating detail about shipboard life and about the people and places visited. It’s thoughtful and sad about the unthinking presumption of superiority of whites, especially religious ones, to impose a “better” life on indigenous peoples.

[Gail Amendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book, but needed to let it percolate in my mind before writing a review. Written in two parts, this book tells of half-sisters Kay and Thea. In the first part Kay is twelve years old and recently orphaned. Her much older sister Thea, who has cared for her for years since her mother died, has recently married a sea captain and takes Kay along on a round the world voyage on her husband's ship. The story moves slowly, much like an ocean voyage in the age of sail, and follows the sisters as they stop at various ports around the world and meet new people and cultures. After suffering multiple pregnancy losses, Thea purchases a young boy from a remote Pacific island and makes him her son. In the second part, Kay and her "brother" set out on another ocean voyage ten years after the first. Along the way we see Kay begin to question the morality of commonly held colonial attitudes and practices of that time, both in light of her brother's experiences, and the time that she and Thea spent in earlier days at the residential school their father ran in Alberta. The writing is good, although a bit awkward at times, and I really liked the characters. I find it interesting that the title has been changed from the original and wonder why. This is my second Marina Endicott book, and it likely won't be my last.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe really 4.5 because I wanted a tiny bit more from the ending.

This breathtaking tale of a young girl on an ocean voyage that sets sail from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1911 captivated me throughout. Young Kay is accompanying her half-sister Thea who has recently wed the captain of The Morning Light on a journey to the other side of the world. The voyage is full of magical moments as well as turbulent ones.

Kay's perspective allows non-sailors (me) to truly feel the fabulous freedom and ferocious power of the sea. Twenty some years older, Thea is harder to read. She spent time working at a residential school managed by her father. She is torn by religion, but observes the rituals. Kay's nightmares from her time living at the residential school in Alberta are what prompted Thea to bring her along on what is really her long-awaited honeymoon.

These elements alone made the story worth reading, but there is so much more! The story explores civilizations in far-off places and what it means to belong and what makes people different and what makes them the same. What is family and how do misfits get on in the world?

Absolutely brilliant!

[Enid Wray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Posting on this is also long overdue...

Good to a Fault is a particular favourite of mine and one I always recommended to students...

While I really like the premise of this title, and that is it historical fiction, I found it to be a difficult read. I had trouble connecting with the characters, especially Kay - which does not bode well. While it is clear that Endicott can write the most beautiful prose, I found that it got lost in the 'overburden' that is most of the book.

There is much to commend, but not enough to recommend. But perhaps it's just my head space at this moment in time... which is, admittedly, a kind of strange one.

[JMacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book but sad in some ways. The idea of white people saving indigenous children is fraught with complications. The author captures the sailing ship life in such a way that I wanted to be on the ship with the characters.

[Riley (runtobooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

marina endicott is just not for me, no matter how lovely the cover designs are

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

this had the makings of a good book. the writing is good and the storyline is good, but it was like I was on a long, meandering path to nowhere. gave up after 200 pages

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in a highly distract-able mood when I started this novel, and yet it slowly drew me in to its precarious journey. Layers of class and colonialism gently inserted into the wide ranging tale of the travels of a young girl not quite sure of her spot in life. Each day brings new uncertainties and life questions, small and large. Is an education, without culture or belonging, received as the gift we think it should be? A true thought experiment and a very good tale. Liked it very much. Even the reference to Treasure Island by Stevenson struck home with me, as I have a similar affection for Swiss Family Robinson by Wyss, which I enjoyed in wide eyed youth. The terrors of tuberculosis stalk us still, even in modern Canadian communities as antibiotic resistance grows and poverty and poor housing conditions persist. The whale encounters are tremendous and stand in for the whole of the wonder of the natural world in my mind...hunted, harvested but still the glorious mammals that they have always been. A mother and a child...related, not related...human, animal. Indeed, what is the difference? And how far has our presumption taken us?

[Gail Barrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, a great travel story about the South Seas and an interesting Canadian story set in both Alberta and Nova Scotia. It felt very authentic. The heroine was both difficult and cranky but so lovable. Based on a true story about a Micronesian little boy who was sold for four tins of tobacco, the story winds around this startling event with compassion. I enjoyed the escapism of the trips abroad contrasted with the stinging reality of small-town Canada and built-in prejudice. Very worthwhile!
and recommended!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book from a GoodReads giveaway. Once I started it, I took every few minutes of free time that I had to continue reading it. I came away from it knowing a bit more about boats, sailing, geography and life in the early 1900's. Beautiful imagery and detail throughout! I was right there with Kay as she was soothed by the rocking of the boat, saw whales in the ocean and watched the night sky. I have not read any of Endicott's previous books, but am now planning on it.

[Kathy MacDonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just could not get into this book. I was attracted to it by its Canadian connection but the storyline seemed really garbled to me. The two main characters obviously had a strange upbringing and a love/hate relationship that I couldn’t quite identify with. Then the author started throwing all these weird Greek words that the young girl was trying to learn and I just bogged down. I got about 1/3 of the way through and gave up.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried and tried to read this book, but in the end I had to give it up. I just could not become engaged in the story or characters. I starting skimming though sections, hoping I would suddenly arrive at part two, where the story is supposed to become more interesting. But even with skipping sections and paragraphs here and there, I could not persevere through part one.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

K is 12 when she accompanies her sister on a honeymoon voyage from Nova Scotia across the world. OK his new brother-in-law captains the ship and we learn much about life aboard a ship in the early 1900s. Several moral issues come up, and in dealing with those, I felt that the author was bringing a NOW sensibility to issues and situations viewed very differently THEN.

[Jane Broadribb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a captivating story - from a residential school in a northern Canadian community to the sultry waters of the South Pacific. The characters were a perfect illustration of how the decisions we make resound through our personal histories... And how the perception of life events can shape our destinies. Would definitely recommend !

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully and intelligently written, touches on many issues, at the heart of them all is, what it means to be human. Loved the mapping of the journeys on both the front and back inside covers. I referred to both many times.
And I agree with many others that it should be on an awards list for Canadian Lit. It’s writing of a very high standard and it should be acknowledged.

[Jessica Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's main character, Kay, is one of my favorite book characters ever now. Very nuanced, complicated, somewhat misanthropic, but so self-aware and sensitive and tender too. The general story is interesting for sure but Kay is what makes this book shine.

[Rhea Tregebov · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an extraordinary, moving, brilliant book. Endicott's writing never disappoints.

[Mary Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

In these days of restricted travel, I thought this might be an interesting journey of discovery. On the contrary, the travel observations are dry and dull as the central characters. Disappointing!

[Janice]

Finally stopped reading at p. 128. It was not Endicott's best, in my opinion.