Tempests and Trysts

The singular voice of Emer McConnell, the narrator of Jane Urquhart’s latest novel, explains, “I was born twice, you see. Once gently, and once violently, which is why, although I am not yet old, I have the stick.”

The opening pages of In Winter I Get Up at Night introduce unassuming Emer, a teacher living what appears to be a simple life in rural Saskatchewan. She rises early in the dark to drive on snowy roads to give elementary students music lessons. With a nickel-plated triangle in her bag, she refers to herself as “the change that occasionally occurs in the midst of routine,” proudly noting the way the children sit a little taller in her presence.

But rather than mirroring the simplicity of her day-to-day, the narrative unfolds to give us a temporally complex, sweeping portrait of a life lived. This artful reconstruction traverses unspeakable tragedies, personal follies, and desperate longings. Urquhart’s prose shifts between various phases...