The deceptively gentle title, Rain Before Morning, of Coast author Michael Poole's new book shouldn't fool you. The story packs a punch.
It tells the tale of lovers Nathan and Leah who recklessly abandon the social mores of 1913 and run away together, hiding in the wilderness bays and islands of the West Coast in unwedded bliss until their dreams are rudely shattered and they are separated. She is sent as a nurse to the front lines of World War I, where she learns the price of desertion; he finds work in the many small, rough, logging companies of the Coast until he is sidelined by a high rigger accident.
We know this story will end badly, yet it is not truly a tragedy. The strongest character, Leah, manages to extract the most from her short, vibrant life. Imprisoned in a convent as a teenager, she gets herself expelled. When confronted with the reluctance of the handsome Nathan to leave his home, she compels him. The tragedy comes later when Nathan is mature enough to make his own choices and he decides not to go to war.
Poole is better known for his non-fiction books, particularly the award winning Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower, but this first novel has its basis in truth - a chunk of genuine Coast history. In a Coast Reporter interview, Poole described how he based his book on a true story known to old timers in the Gibsons area in which a deserter hiding in the woods shoots a local boy. In the 1970s as a film producer, Poole researched the story of First World War objectors who hid away in the woods of Elphinstone, risking the label of deserter and possible execution. Poole tracked down two such men, by then elderly. One of them could not remember; the other man did not want to remember and ejected Poole from his home. Emotions run high on the topic of desertion, even decades later.Poole's object was not to solve an 80-year-old mystery. "I was attracted to what was essentially a love story - two young people growing up much as I did on a remote Coast," he said.
In 1943, Poole's parents moved to a tiny cottage at Langdale with no running water or electricity. He remembers the Union Steamships passing once a week after stopping at Keats and Hopkins, a description that comes to life vividly in Rain Before Morning. The book's locale, Silva Landing, could be any small West Coast community, and although it is fictional, other place names in the book are not. It's clear this book is also about our coastal history and is backed up by research. After a career in film research at CBC, Poole likes to draw on this ability.
"I write a line in fiction, I want to know it's got a basis," he says.The war permeates the book; Poole didn't set out to write a portentous anti-war message but agrees that it deals with issues that have never gone away. The division of a small community over who will go to war and who will resist is as contemporary in theme as today's divided opinion over the involvement of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
Poole will be reading from his novel at the Sechelt Public Library on Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. All are invited. Rain Before Morning is published by Harbour and is available for $24.95 at local bookstores.
