Overview

Do we belong to the Earth or does the Earth belong to us? The question raised by Chief Seathl almost two centuries ago continues to be the defining quandary of the wet, wild rainforests along the shores of the Pacific Northwest. It seethes below the tides of the fictional town of Good River Harbor, a little village pressed against the mountains-homeland to bears, whales, and a few weather-worn families. In Piano Tide, the debut novel by award-winning naturalist, philosopher, activist and author Kathleen Dean Moore, we are introduced to town father Axel Hagerman, who has made a killing in this remote Alaskan harbor by selling off the spruce, the cedar, the herring and halibut. But when he decides to export the water from a salmon stream, he runs head-long into young Nora Montgomery, just arrived on the ferry with her piano and her dog. Nora has burned her bridges in the lower 48, and she aims to disappear into this new homeland, with her piano as her anchor. But when Axel's next business proposition, a bear pit, turns lethal, Nora has to act. The clash, when it comes, is a spectacular and transformative act of resistance.

Full Product Details

9781619025721

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for Piano Tide This is award-winning naturalist, philosopher, and climate activist Moore's first foray into fiction, and it is not only a remarkably thoughtful and compelling look at the threats to endangered species and the willful destruction of the environment but also a thoroughly engaging tale featuring vividly drawn characters who grab our interest from the very first pages...Moore writes so eloquently and with such passion about the natural world, from tiny tide pool inhabitants to giant grizzlies and towering hemlocks, that she leaves the reader in wonder and awe. &#8213;Booklist, starred review <p/> An eco-thriller that is both funny and thought-provoking. &#8213;The Bend Bulletin <p/> Piano Tide joins Ken Kesey's Sailor Song as one of the great novels of Alaska and its convoluted coast and history. A small group of people making a life in a village by the sea: this is Kathy Moore's canvas, and she paints a really beautiful, intense, funny and lively portrait of Nora and her new neighbors. How to live in this world? Moore lets us ponder this by way of a great story, in this marvelous debut novel. --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Years of Rice and Salt <p/> I think Kathleen Dean Moore can do anything--including write a savagely funny and deeply insightful novel of the tidepool and rainforest country she knows so well! --Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth <p/> Piano Tide captures with remarkable perception the beauty of Alaska, the environmental conflicts that tear at and unite communities, and the interconnectedness of all things. You'll be swept into this world as if by a turning tide, and you will love the characters--human and otherwise--you find there. Moore writes from deep knowledge and empathy, with an open heart. --Nancy Lord, author of Fishcamp, Beluga Days, and Early Warming, and former Alaska Writer Laureate <p/> Piano Tide is a rare beauty, a novel whose deeply flawed characters are written with compassion and insight; a book vibrating with drama and lyrical prose side-by-side with hard-hitting questions that ask how earth--and all life on earth--will survive uncompromising capitalism. Moore introduces the philosophical 'Problem of Unnecessary Beauty'--why beauty in nature sometimes thrives for no apparent reason. But Piano Tide is a necessary beauty. You may read it in one sitting; but when you turn that last page, you'll want to stand up for the things we share: this earth, this life, this wild and enduring hope. --BK Loren, author of Theft and Animal, Mineral, Radical <p/> In Piano Tide, Kathleen Dean Moore has given us a an action adventure, a lesson in the natural history of Southeast Alaska, and a cast of unforgettable backwoods characters. As Pacific tides rise and fall, almost engulfing the hamlet called Good River Harbor, we witness humans as well as bears, salmon, and the forest itself, fighting to survive amid forces of man-made destruction and nature's renewal. Piano Tide is a fine read, sure to join the ranks of Ed Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang on the eco/thriller bookshelf. --Annick Smith, author of Crossing the Plains with Bruno and Homestead <p/> With Piano Tide, Kathleen Dean Moore proves herself the rare writer at home in both the novel and nonfiction. Her debut novel evokes Alaska's silvery bears and clouds as vividly as her beloved nature writing, with beguiling characters bound by tide and moral compromise in a fishing village at the end of the world. Moore's story will have you rooting for not only piano-toting Nora, but an entire landscape and all its life. Masterfully told and full of heart, Piano Tide is one of those books you can't stop thinking about for days after you've turned the final page. --Cynthia Barnett, author of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History

Praise for Piano Tide This is award-winning naturalist, philosopher, and climate activist Moore's first foray into fiction, and it is not only a remarkably thoughtful and compelling look at the threats to endangered species and the willful destruction of the environment but also a thoroughly engaging tale featuring vividly drawn characters who grab our interest from the very first pages...Moore writes so eloquently and with such passion about the natural world, from tiny tide pool inhabitants to giant grizzlies and towering hemlocks, that she leaves the reader in wonder and awe. --Booklist, starred review Piano Tide is about putting a spear into the ground and saying, 'I will defend this place however I can'; That puts it on the shelf with Monkey Wrench Gang, although Piano Tide is its own book and a damned good one. --Dave Foreman, author of The Great Conservation Divide and The Lobo Outback Funeral Home Piano Tide joins Ken Kesey's Sailor Song as one of the great novels of Alaska and its convoluted coast and history. A small group of people making a life in a village by the sea: this is Kathy Moore's canvas, and she paints a really beautiful, intense, funny and lively portrait of Nora and her new neighbors. How to live in this world? Moore lets us ponder this by way of a great story, in this marvelous debut novel. --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Years of Rice and Salt I think Kathleen Dean Moore can do anything--including write a savagely funny and deeply insightful novel of the tidepool and rainforest country she knows so well! --Bill McKibben Piano Tide captures with remarkable perception the beauty of Alaska, the environmental conflicts that tear at and unite communities, and the interconnectedness of all things. You'll be swept into this world as if by a turning tide, and you will love the characters--human and otherwise--you find there. Moore writes from deep knowledge and empathy, with an open heart. --Nancy Lord, author of Fishcamp, Beluga Days, and Early Warming, and former Alaska Writer Laureate An eco-thriller that is both funny and thought-provoking. --The Bend Bulletin Moore's writing is dreamy and rhythmic, lulling as the sea, which murmurs in the background of her story. A prize-winning nature writer who resides in Oregon and spends summers on Chichagof Island, Moore doesn't hold back when it comes to description, and the Southeast Alaska landscape breathes around every page, every character . . . This is a remarkable book, a remarkable story, and if at times the landscape threatens to eclipse the characters, so be it. Because this is also a funny book, with characters so odd and funny, so lovable and flawed that one can't help but think of Steinbeck's Cannery Row. --Alaska Dispatch News Praise for Holdfast: At Home in the Natural World Reminiscent of the work of Annie Dillard and others who have combined their observations of the natural world with philosophical reflections... --Publishers Weekly Graceful meditations on nature...an altogether satisfying collection by a gifted interpreter of the natural world. --Kirkus Reviews Praise for Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature Kathleen Dean Moore is a writer whose senses, heart, generosity, and intellect open in every direction. This book, filled with knowledge of the natural and human worlds, is a superb naturalist's handbook. It is also a praise book: an illuminated manuscript whose life overspills its own borders. In its grounded wisdoms, humility, curiosity, and in the kaleidoscope beauty of its descriptions, Wild Comfort reminds how to see, how to sing; how to welcome, with equal gravity and grace, whatever asks entrance into our lives. It is destined to become a classic. --Jane Hirshfield What nature gives, it takes away. Kathleen Dean Moore feels the ache of this truth in her bones. And yet in spite of grieving over the death of friends, the extinction of species, and the tattering of Earth's web, she finds comfort in natural and human creations, in symphonies and snakes, in science and stars, in the beauty constantly upwelling from the mystery we call life. This book itself is such a consoling creation, a cause for gratitude and joy. --Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe Moore's descriptions are powerfully visceral. Readers will find that the world seems larger, wilder, and yet safer than they had thought--more beautiful and more like home. --Book Page This collection of essays, reveries, and meditations interweaves keen observations of the natural world with descriptions of wilderness travel, conversations, stories, and philosophical musings. It is easy to imagine Moore lying next to Plato, intensely focused and observant, pointing out the natural world's soothing and transformative miracles. She excels at it. --The Oregonian Praise for Riverwalking: Reflections on Moving Water A smart, compassionate, and wise meditation on living in place. --Terry Tempest Williams Praise for Piano Tide This is award-winning naturalist, philosopher, and climate activist Moore's first foray into fiction, and it is not only a remarkably thoughtful and compelling look at the threats to endangered species and the willful destruction of the environment but also a thoroughly engaging tale featuring vividly drawn characters who grab our interest from the very first pages...Moore writes so eloquently and with such passion about the natural world, from tiny tide pool inhabitants to giant grizzlies and towering hemlocks, that she leaves the reader in wonder and awe. â Booklist, starred review An eco-thriller that is both funny and thought-provoking. â The Bend Bulletin Piano Tide joins Ken Kesey's Sailor Song as one of the great novels of Alaska and its convoluted coast and history. A small group of people making a life in a village by the sea: this is Kathy Moore's canvas, and she paints a really beautiful, intense, funny and lively portrait of Nora and her new neighbors. How to live in this world? Moore lets us ponder this by way of a great story, in this marvelous debut novel. --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Years of Rice and Salt I think Kathleen Dean Moore can do anything--including write a savagely funny and deeply insightful novel of the tidepool and rainforest country she knows so well! --Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth Piano Tide captures with remarkable perception the beauty of Alaska, the environmental conflicts that tear at and unite communities, and the interconnectedness of all things. You'll be swept into this world as if by a turning tide, and you will love the characters--human and otherwise--you find there. Moore writes from deep knowledge and empathy, with an open heart. --Nancy Lord, author of Fishcamp, Beluga Days, and Early Warming, and former Alaska Writer Laureate Piano Tide is a rare beauty, a novel whose deeply flawed characters are written with compassion and insight; a book vibrating with drama and lyrical prose side-by-side with hard-hitting questions that ask how earth--and all life on earth--will survive uncompromising capitalism. Moore introduces the philosophical 'Problem of Unnecessary Beauty'--why beauty in nature sometimes thrives for no apparent reason. But Piano Tide is a necessary beauty. You may read it in one sitting; but when you turn that last page, you'll want to stand up for the things we share: this earth, this life, this wild and enduring hope. --BK Loren, author of Theft and Animal, Mineral, Radical In Piano Tide, Kathleen Dean Moore has given us a an action adventure, a lesson in the natural history of Southeast Alaska, and a cast of unforgettable backwoods characters. As Pacific tides rise and fall, almost engulfing the hamlet called Good River Harbor, we witness humans as well as bears, salmon, and the forest itself, fighting to survive amid forces of man-made destruction and nature's renewal. Piano Tide is a fine read, sure to join the ranks of Ed Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang on the eco/thriller bookshelf. --Annick Smith, author of Crossing the Plains with Bruno and Homestead With Piano Tide, Kathleen Dean Moore proves herself the rare writer at home in both the novel and nonfiction. Her debut novel evokes Alaska's silvery bears and clouds as vividly as her beloved nature writing, with beguiling characters bound by tide and moral compromise in a fishing village at the end of the world. Moore's story will have you rooting for not only piano-toting Nora, but an entire landscape and all its life. Masterfully told and full of heart, Piano Tide is one of those books you can't stop thinking about for days after you've turned the final page. --Cynthia Barnett, author of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History

Author Information

Kathleen Dean Moore is the author or co-editor of many books about our moral and emotional bonds to the wild, reeling world, including Earth's Wild Music, Wild Comfort, Moral Ground, and Great Tide Rising. She is the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Association Award and the Oregon Book Award, along with the WILLA Literary Award for her novel Piano Tide. A philosopher and activist, Moore writes from Corvallis, Oregon and Chichagof Island, Alaska.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available