The towering cedar trees and lapping ocean water of the Canadian West Coast take centre stage in this novel, which charts the story of two young lovers who must brave familial pressures and the ravages of war in their quest to be together. Writer, journalist, and filmmaker Michael Poole’s debut successfully weaves romance, war, and atmospheric natural settings into a page-turning narrative.

The novel opens in 1913 in Silva Landing, on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, where the main characters, Nathan and Leah, experience the heady intoxication of mutual attraction. Poole adeptly uses the untouched quality of the landscape to highlight the purity of the love the two young people feel for one another.

This purity is soon tested when both parental disapproval and the First World War compel the couple to seek refuge away from those forces attempting to keep them apart. The book effectively conveys a sense of urgency as the approaching shadow of conscription threatens to separate them forever. Poole makes their fate matter by creating a relationship that captures both the impulsiveness of youthful passion and the deeper rewards of enduring connection.

While the book follows a predictable narrative trajectory of romantic struggle, subtle nuances move the story beyond mere cliché. Nathan and Leah’s love finds its depth and interest in the ties to the land they forge in their initial Silva Landing encounters. Here Poole’s background in environmental filmmaking is most evident.

The scenes of wartime are less compelling than the depictions of natural splendour that ground the characters amid the chaos of global conflict. In the end, it is the images of circling seabirds and moving tides that linger well past the close of the story.