PURITY FOUND

In Rozek’s novel, a young woman moves from Oregon to rural northern Canada and meets the man of her dreams—but also finds long winters and a hardscrabble life.

It’s 1973, and Kate is an ex-hippie looking for a new beginning. She’s determined to leave her wild, uninhibited past behind, so she follows her sense of faith to Anahim Lake, a small rural community in Canada, where she finds welcoming people, a place to stay at a lakeside resort, and a part-time job getting cabins ready for tourists. There, she meets Dave, a timber faller with dreams of owning his own ranch, and she’s struck with a feeling of déjà vu. Could he be her future? As Kate and Dave fall in love and she learns the skills she needs to live in a rural area, challenges arise involving her past, his life situation (he’s separated and has a child), his Catholic religion, and his homesteading dream, among other things. Kate must lean on every ounce of her faith, strength, and cunning to thrive in her new rural life. Rozek’s novel is based on a true story, and it delivers an engaging, sympathetic narrative that situates readers in Kate’s daily life. There’s satisfaction in the book’s descriptions of the protagonist baking bread (“How can hot bread and butter taste this delicious?”), milking a cow, canning moose meat, and exploring the wilderness. Some readers may not relate to aspects of Kate’s unquestioning faith, however, and readers find out relatively little about Dave, beyond his silent convictions and his skill with a tractor. The book’s steadfast concern with purity (of people, of land) wraps the story in a sense of moral righteousness that sometimes shuts off what could be interesting discussions; for example, Kate’s past is portrayed as something for which she must seek forgiveness, instead of something that could be part of her present. Still, the book offers an energizing simplicity, asserting that with a little hard work, one can take a leap of faith into a kind of paradise.

An invigorating, if occasionally unquestioning, tale of spiritual searching.