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Piano Tide

A Novel

Author Kathleen Dean Moore
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Paperback
$16.95 US
Catapult | Counterpoint
5.56"W x 8.26"H x 0.82"D   | 11 oz | 36 per carton
On sale Dec 12, 2017 | 288 Pages | 9781619025721
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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.
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
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.
Kathleen Dean Moore View titles by Kathleen Dean Moore

About

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.

Praise

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

Author

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.
Kathleen Dean Moore View titles by Kathleen Dean Moore

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