Late Nights On Air ****+ by Elizabethy Hay

This is a great book for Canadians, Albertans and international readers. The story is set against the backdrop of the far north in the town of Yellowknife, North West Territories (and beyond). It brings the stark reality and the beauty of the arctic environment. The characters are believably real as the tale unfolds within a context of what was actually happening during the same time period (1975). The loneliness of the environment’s small population, remote locations and incredibly long distance is not on captured in beautiful language but is minimized by the intimacy of the relationships between the main characters who work in the local radio station.

The novice announcer Gwen: “With time she’d grown more accustomed to the bracing experience of the microphone. It no longer felt like plunging into cold water – in and out – before towelling herself off. She could stay in much longer. A burka for the shy, the night-time announce booth. A dark tent that covered her up as she crossed the wide desert of late-night radio.”
The aging and experienced acting manager Harry: “Quarrelsome as sparrows guarding their territory, but what issued from them was song, birdsong being proprietary and exclusive.”

“The mistakes don’t matter,” he informed her one night after she stumbled over a station ID and apologized on air... “It’s the recovery that counts. I’ve learned that a mistake is just something you go on from”
And on the accidental death of a close friend during a canoe trip to the far reaches of the territory: “Where they had been was so vast, and Ralph’s death so unforeseen, that their sense of the ordinary died with him. The normal grasses of life never quite grew back.”

Eventually some of the characters leave the barren and go onto new life adventures. They have learned and grown from the experience. And, some of them stay and living a lifestyle that most of us can’t even imagine. This is a good read. It is no wonder that it is the Giller Prize Winner (2005)