I started this book in the summer of 1995 when I was working in a remote part of Alaska. People were passing this title around. I had heard it was an award winner and that it was set in another remote place. It seemed like it would be a good fit for me then, but I couldn’t get into the writing or the characters. Winter is my time to read hard or challenging titles and this book caught my attention. I can report that I enjoyed the Shipping News. Quoyle has a hard life and finds himself in Newfoundland. The author cooks up some interesting characters and plot twists and I enjoyed living in their world for awhile. All the references to different sailing knots was a fun addition, as was the thread of building Quoyle a boat. If you have some time to sit with an interesting community of characters I’d say give it a go.