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Listen to a podcast of Peter Geye reading an excerpt from The Lighthouse Road in an interview on KMSU Weekly Reader. Hosts are Benjamin Allocco and Amy Fladeboe.

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“With spare realism, Geye puts a fresh spin on a familiar tale, rendering a powerful portrayal of family bonds in an era long past. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal

“In his second novel, Geye brings the wilderness of northern Minnesota—in a lumberjack camp and a small town and aboard a skiff riding the waves of Lake Superior—to crackling, thundering life. Handled less skillfully, Geye’s emphasis on one primary trait in his characters—their intense longing for somewhere to belong and, at the same time, somewhere to be free—might come off as one-dimensional, but here the story and its people achieve remarkable emotional resonance. The echoes of the characters’ heartbreak through the generations are as haunting as the howling of the wolves on the wind.”— Booklist, starred review

“a richly nuanced collage that keeps readers guessing….a page-turner….”—The Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A treasure. A story of love and loss and courage set in the wilds of northern Minnesota, spanning the decades from the end of the 19th century to the early 1920s….will resonate long after you turn the last page.”—Hudson Valley News

“[P]oignant and thought-provoking….This story is not about happiness or happy endings, it’s about surviving, both physically and emotionally. And that’s something we’re all trying to do.”— Tulsa Books Examiner

“Minnesota author Peter Geye’s engaging second novel, following 2011’s Safe from the Sea, is also set in northern Minnesota, near the rugged shores of Lake Superior ... As with Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News, readers will feel as if they are experiencing the nature that Geye paints for them first-hand.” - BookPage

“This is a beautifully written book, richly detailed, stark and tragic, but with glimmers of hopefulness.” - Historical Novel Society

“What has Peter Geye done with The Lighthouse Road?...Other than bringing to life a place and a time that many know about, vaguely, but not with these delicious and scathing details. What Geye has done with The Lighthouse Road is to burrow into hearts. The story will stay with you. The place will stay with you. The water, the cold, the woods…. Peter Geye has done a valiant and beautiful thing here: he has made himself completely invisible. There is not a single false note in this story. The reader feels as though they are reading a history, as if these people lived, breathed, loved and worked in the environs of the North Shore. Thea and Odd and Hosea and Rebekah, they aren’t just characters. They’re more than characters. Their story has been called heartbreaking, but in the end, it is also hopeful. They’ll be with us for a long time, so you might as well get to know them.”—Minneapolis Books Examiner.com

“Peter Geye’s The Lighthouse Road is a beautifully written, stunning novel of self-preservation, secrets, and the ache for love. Geye’s work is unforgettable and will be read for generations to come.”—BethFish Reads

“Read this book and allow yourself to sink into the exciting yet complicated lives of a group of sure-to-be-classic characters. Buy it for everyone you know.” - Hungry for Good Books.com

“I think what I most appreciated about THE LIGHTHOUSE ROAD was how it delved into so many universal truths about human nature. Each character is this novel was obviously struggling, but they were also trying to discover who they really were, especially Odd. I think that’s one of the main reasons that THE LIGHTHOUSE ROAD would make such a good book club selection…. another stellar novel by Mr. Geye. I definitely recommend it to fans of literary fiction and especially readers who enjoy being taken to another place and time.”— Booking Mama

Just when we wondered if Peter Geye could top Safe from the Sea, along comes this terrific new story from the logging camps of the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota (due to be released October 2). Spanning the 1890s to 1937, this is the story of Odd Eide and his “family.” Dark secrets set against a harsh landscape will put you in the mind of an Ingmar Bergman film. This is a must-read from a talented Minneapolis author. - Susie Fruncillo, Lake Country Books

“These are three-dimensional characters, with pasts, dreams, humor and flaws. Like looking at the serene surface of the lake without taking into account the actions of the wind, this book is much deeper and more affecting than its storyline would lead you to believe. I found I couldn’t wait to return to the world Geye brought to life in the pages of this novel. Hours after having to shut the book, I would find myself thinking about the scenery of Northern Minnesota (scenery I’ve never seen, but now seem to recall it like memory) and the lives of the denizens of Gunflint. As I closed the book for the last time, on a windy afternoon not unlike the morning on the last page of the book, I walked away haunted by this novel. “The Lighthouse Road” is an excellent, layered, and ultimately haunting novel about what truly defines a family and how to be true to yourself without succumbing to the broken edges of your life.”— Joe Eichman, Between the Covers

Using language as stark as the unforgiving landscape it portrays, Peter Geye sets a story of desperate people in desperate times on the shores of Lake Superior. His characters not only struggle against the elements but also struggle to find humanity in a cruel environment. This is natural writing that not only conjures scene and place but also the eternal human battle.- Bill Cusumano, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI

Peter Geye’s first book was a touching, regional portrait of the relationship between a father and son. This book takes the reader one step farther into a masterpiece. Historical fiction has a new contender, and his name is Peter Geye. This is a novel of love, betrayal, hope, and loss. It runs the gamut of human emotion and the reader is immersed into a convoluted relationship between an older woman and younger man in the 1890s. A novel of scandal and ice, Lighthouse Road is an exceptional work. - Jessilynn Norcross, McLean and Eakin

“The Lighthouse Road is remarkable for its incredible description of immigrant life in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the complexity and depth of the characters shaped by the very harsh conditions and landscapes they live in and also by the dark secrets of their past and their longings for a better life.” – Pierre Camey of Schuler Books

“With Safe From the Sea, Peter Geye quickly became a store favorite, and we were wondering how in the world he was going to follow it up—sophomore slump and all of that. The good news? THE LIGHTHOUSE ROAD is terrific, the kind of book we love here at the store: fully imagined, a book that manages to simultaneously dislodge you historically while remaining familiar on account of the emotional urgency felt by the characters. Geye is writing spectacular fiction, and breezed right by that sophomore slump with this terrific novel. Three cheers for Peter Geye; three cheers for THE LIGHTHOUSE ROAD.”
—Ethan Rutherford, Magers & Quinn

“Peter Geye writes with the mesmerizing power of the snowstorms that so often come howling off Lake Superior. I am in awe of how he swirls through so many years and juggles so many characters, all of them unforgettable and weighed down by secrets and regrets and desires that burn through the hoarfrost of Geye’s bristling sentences.” - -Benjamin Percy

“To be submerged in the frothing, watery world of Peter Geye’s The Lighthouse Road is to be baptized anew in the promise of American letters. I defy you to bear witness to the tormented tenderness of Odd Eide, to suffer and love and row beside him in his skiff, without throwing down your nets. Here is an epic that spans more than generations. Here is an epic that spans the topography between hell-dark bear dens and moonlit lake water. Here is a novel that charts the whole of the human heart.”—Bruce Machart, author of The Wake of Forgiveness

“No author today writes from a sense of place as brilliantly as Peter Geye. The Lighthouse Road takes place in a broodingly atmospheric Northern Minnesota, peopled by tragic characters so influenced by their unforgiving environment, they can’t recognize love when they see it. This is a story that lingers long after you turn the last page.” - -Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been

“The idea of encapsulating any good novel in two or three sentences is silly. Good novels are all similar in one way: they are messy. And complicated. The simple facts of this book contain whiskey, an apothecary, fish and boats. Peter Geye, in The Lighthouse Road has created a world that is great fun to inhabit for however many, or few, hours it takes.” -, Hans Weyandt, Micawber’s Books, MN

“The Lighthouse Road is exciting, moving, surprising, and original. I highly recommend it for individual enjoyment and for lively book club discussions.”— Nancy Simpson Brice, Book Vault, IA

“We’ve all appreciated books set in America ‘s western frontier because of the way that hardship reveals the extremes of human nature. In The Lighthouse Road, I was captivated by the portrayal of the main characters. I was chilled by the vivid descriptions of the logging camp and Lake Superior. But most of all, what great storytelling. I slowed down reading to try to make the book last longer, even as I stayed up through the night to find consolation.Thank you for putting this treasure into my hands.”— Anne Storan, Paragraphs Books, Mount Vernon, OH

“A beautifully rendered tale of the north shore. Odd’s and Thea’s stories were woven together with skill, making the book both complex and interesting. Peter’s use of period style and vernacular also impressed. This is yet another book from Unbridled that we will champion upon it’s release.” – Chris Livingston, The Book Shelf, MN

“The hurts and burdens of the past as well as the cold and unforgiving north country conspire against the happiness of the beautifully drawn characters in Peter Geye’s latest novel, The Lighthouse Road. Even on a journey to a new town in a specially crafted boat, Rebekah and Odd cannot escape the past. People are not always what they seem in this story and outcomes cannot be predicted. The women characters are compelling and show Geye’s increasing skill and versatility”—Vicki Erwin, Main Street Books, MO

“Upon receiving an advance copy of Peter Geye’s second novel I opened it with a smile on my face and he didn’t disappoint . . .Geye’s writing is so vivid one is transported to the cold, lonely shores of Lake Superior. His ability to bring his characters to life is awesome. This is a novel that held me long after I finished the last pages.”—Sue Richardson, Maine Coast Book Shop

The Lighthouse Road is a story I will never forget. Peter Geye has created a story over multiple generations that will pull at your heart strings. He has built characters who you will learn to love in the first few chapters. The language in this book is simply poetic – using words you would never hear in our modern world. Geye’s characters have a tragic beauty to them, as do the weather and climate of the north shore of Lake Superior – which Geye describes with perfection. …This story will sit with you for hours (if not days) after you’ve read it. Peter definitely possesses the gift of being able to bring his characters to life, and I am so very grateful to have read this story.- Kristen Sandstrom, Apostle Island Booksellers, Bayfield, WI

The Lighthouse Road is a gracefully structured novel set in a northern Minnesota frontier town. Alternating between harsh logging camps in the 1890’s and a whiskey running outfit in the 1920’s, Geye tells the story of Thea Eide, a Norwegian immigrant who dies in childbirth, and her orphan son, Odd, who becomes a solemn fisherman and whiskey runner. As affecting as it is cruel, this sorrowful novel is a satisfying read. - Shane Papendorf, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In his second novel, Peter Geye proves that his grasp of the dramatic landscapes of Northern Minnesota are bested only by his conveyance of how those landscapes impact the people who populate them. Hardened by fierce weather, logging camp life, and wild animals, made more so by their own choices. Such is the crisply told tale of orphaned fisherman Odd Eide and the friends and family who influence his every decision, especially the most difficult ones that relate to love and loss. I absolutely loved Geye’s first novel, Safe from the Sea, and this one is even better.- Stacie M. Williams, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“Geye’s writing is so eloquent, so sparse with such carefully chosen words, some of which I had to look up in the dictionary. In superbly eloquent and mesmerizing prose, Geye brings us a novel with a story and writing that will blow you away. Unbridled Books has a special talent on their hands with Peter Geye.”— Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books

“This is a stunning, poignant and powerful book which I highly recommend.” – CaribousMom.com

“Geye has hit another one out of the park with The Lighthouse Road. Excellent book for book club discussions” – Savvy Verse & Wit .com

PETER GEYE

THE LIGHTHOUSE ROAD

Against the wilds of sea and wood, a young immigrant woman settles into life outside Duluth in the 1890s, still shocked at finding herself alone in a new country, abandoned and adrift. In the early 1920s, her son, now grown, falls in love with the one woman he shouldn’t and uses his best skills to build them their own small ark to escape. But their pasts travel with them, threatening to capsize even their fragile hope. In this triumphant new novel, Peter Geye has crafted another deeply moving tale of a misbegotten family shaped by the rough landscape where they live at the mercy of wildlife and weather—and by the rough edges of their own breaking hearts.

“No author today writes from a sense of place as brilliantly as Peter Geye. The Lighthouse Road takes place in a broodingly atmospheric Northern Minnesota, peopled by tragic characters so influenced by their unforgiving environment, they can’t recognize love when they see it. This is a story that lingers long after you turn the last page.”- Melanie Benjamin

“To be submerged in the frothing, watery world of Peter Geye’s The Lighthouse Road is to be baptized anew in the promise of American letters. I defy you to bear witness to the tormented tenderness of Odd Eide, to suffer and love and row beside him in his skiff, without throwing down your nets. Here is an epic that spans more than generations. Here is an epic that spans the topography between helldark bear dens and moonlit lake water. Here is a novel that charts the whole of the human heart.”- Bruce Machart

$24.95 / $25.95 CAN | Fiction Hardcover | 6 x 9 | 304 pages

October 2012

ISBN: 978-1-60953-084-6 | Carton Quantity: 24

EISBN: 978-1-60953-085-3

The Port av Kristiania arrived at her final destination in the middle of the night. Thea was sleeping in her bunk when she felt the ship’s definitive stop. She found her bags and joined the crowd and by the time she reached the main deck she was wide awake and consumed by a new awe: Kristiania—even at night, perhaps especially at night—sprawled all around her. The gas streetlamps flickered near and far, those on the yonder hillside a kind of greasy mirage that might not have been light at all, might have been only an impossible reflection. There were warehouses on the waterfront three times larger than the ship she was now stepping off. Everywhere the sounds of harbor life thrummed: the grinding and shrieking of train and trolley tracks, the clatter of horses’ hooves on the dock’s planks, the moaning of loading cranes, and above and below all of it the sound of human voices.

Before then, Thea had never seen more than one hundred people gathered together. But even in the middle of the night there were thousands of people here. In the next slip two steamships, each twice as long as the Port av Kristiania, were loading, crowds of people tunneled into the shadowy quay. As Thea reached the gangplank, she noticed the taut ship lines crisscrossing the docks, the enormous nets hauling cargo onboard the steamships before her, and casks by the thousands ready to be loaded into ships’ holds.

As soon as she was on the dock she was swept into a cordoned area where several nurses stood ready to examine and interrogate the passengers. One at a time they were led to tables. When it was Thea’s turn, a grim-faced woman signaled her to come forward. Thea was asked to provide her ticket for passage. The nurse confirmed the ticket against a list in her passenger log and proceeded to ask a series of twenty-nine questions.

Aside from the routine questions regarding her final destination and place of birth and the promise of labor in America, she was also asked whether or not she was an anarchist or polygamist, if she was in any way crippled or had deformities, if she had ever been imprisoned. She spent fifteen minutes answering these and other questions, and when the interview was complete, the nurse took Thea into a curtained area and asked her to remove her cloak and hat.

The medical examination that followed was cursory. After the nurse listened to Thea’s lungs with her stethoscope and checked her for a hunchback and diseases of the skin, she filled out a landing card and told Thea she could go aboard Thingvalla. As she ascended the steep gangplank, she could already feel the melancholy sea in the soles of her feet.

Peter Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PhD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He was born and raised in Minneapolis and continues to live there with his wife and three children. He is the author of the award winning novel, Safe from the Sea.

Author photo by Matt and Jenae Batt.

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