Across the Great Lake

by Lee Zacharias

"It was a huge and powerful ship with a tall, handsome pilothouse and big smoking stacks, no place for a girl, though I loved it, I cannot tell you how much I loved it." In her eighty-fifth year, Fern Halvorson tells the story of a childhood journey across Lake Michigan and the secret she has kept since that ill-fated voyage.

As his wife lies dying in the brutally cold winter of 1936, Henrik Halvorsen takes his daughter Fern away with him. He captains a great coal-fired vessel, the Manitou, transporting railroad cars across the icy lake. The five-year-old girl revels in the freedom of the ferry, making friends with a stowaway cat and a gentle young deckhand. The sighting of a ghost ship, though, presages danger for all aboard.
Across the Great Lake has been named a 2019 Notable Michigan Book and a Finalist for the 2018 Foreword Indies Book of the Year in Literary Fiction.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adult, Historical

240 pages, Hardcover

Published September 18, 2018

About the author

Lee Zacharias is the author of three novels, a collection of essays, and a book of short stories. She has published numerous essays, short stories, and photographs and has been reprinted in Best American Essays. She was the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, and has taught at Princeton University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

No doubt if you live near Lake Michigan or are familiar with it, you will connect with this story, but even if you don’t know much about it like me, you might find this to be a captivating story as I did. 1936 in Michigan, Fern is 5 years old and taken on the ferry which carries railroad cars across Lake Michigan with her father who is the Captain. He takes her with him because her mother isn’t able to take care of her after losing a second child before giving birth . An adventure in her eyes, albeit a dangerous one crossing the frozen lake for a five year old roaming the boat. Fern at the beginning of the story is 85 going back in time to that trip. So this is in many ways is about memories, about how valid those memories might be, what we remember, what we choose to forget. The reader is posed with a dilemma- how reliable of a narrator is she when she says:

“But isn’t it also strange that I should remember nearly every moment of that journey when I have forgotten so much else? Some people say that the distant past comes back to them as if it were yesterday, but those days in the Manitou do not come back to me like yesterday, they come back like today, like this very minute, the way a book springs back to life and happens all over again, with all its colors and smells, the raw sorrow for each setback and joy in it’s triumphs , every time you take it off the shelf.”

“ I have read that the memories that seem most familiar to us ,the ones we most often visit, are in fact our least accurate, for each time we review them we change them, revisions so subtle we’re unaware of making them, until the more we seem to remember, the less we actually do. But what happens to the memories you suppress, the ones you can’t bear to visit waking, and so do they come to you in dreams ? ....in calling up the past, memory always lies.”

“Maybe nothing I remember is quite right.”

Fern with great detail tells the story of those days at sea, interspersed with her present at 85. While from the beginning she questions her memory, what she remembers is a sometimes sad and touching story of a young girl trying to make sense of the things around her, not just on the ferry, but her life before and after that trip. Losing her mother, coming to terms with her father’s intermittent presence, her connection on the ferry to a young boy named Alv, and facing the ghosts of her past. At 70 years old when he husband is gone and her children are grown, she returns to the place of her childhood, her home. Her children don’t understand why but Fern’s connection to this place, this lake, is a deep connection that the reader comes to understand as she reveals the burden she has carried all these years of one fateful day. This is well written; you almost feel as if you are on the boat, can see the ice, feel the cold, are in the mind of a five year old experiencing her awe, her desire for the adventure, her fear. And then in the thoughts of a woman who holds these memories.

I received an advanced copy of this book from U of Wisconsin Press through NetGalley.

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for brilliant storytelling to Across the Great Lake! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

When I’m really enjoying a book, I read it slowly and savor every word, especially when the storytelling is rich and expansive, and that was my experience with Across the Great Lake. From the first chapter, I knew that Lee Zacharias weaves a story perfectly.

Fern Halvorson is the narrator, and at eighty-five years old, she has a big secret and a tale of a journey across Lake Michigan that looms larger than life.

Fern’s mother could no longer take care of her; it is not completely clear at first, but her mother is overwhelmingly ill. Henrik, Fern’s father, has no choice but to take the young five-year-old Fern along with him for the winter where he works as a ship’s captain transporting railroad cars over the ice-filled, treacherous Lake Michigan.

Fern experiences freedom on the ship with its dangerous backdrop. She is fast friends with a cat onboard and also forms a bond with a young deckhand.

One of my favorite aspects of reading is learning, and I absorbed as much as I could about Lake Michigan and the transporting business that took place, even in the midst of winter.

Zacharias’ characters were richly drawn, easily sentimental, and complex. Fern is now eighty-five and recalling memories from a winter when she was only five. Her memories are hazy, and maybe not completely accurate to what happened- for that is the function of memories over time. They are not perfect, but they are what we recall as most important about an experience we lived through.

The setting is so astutely drawn that you feel as if you are on the ship with Fern and all the crew. The ice and intense cold are in your face they are so realistic.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to fall into a well-developed and beautifully written book. Fern’s emotional story was a fantastical one to witness.

Thank you to Caitlin Hamilton Marketing on behalf of the author for the complimentary copy to review. All opinions are my own.

My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com

[Dorie - Cats&Books :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love historical fiction and when I was offered a galley of this novel which takes place on Lake Michigan I was intrigued. I live not more than 10 blocks from the great lake but in Wisconsin. I know how mesmerizing and amazing it can be in all seasons. We haven’t had a winter like the one described in the book for many years but I can remember when I was younger and the lake would actually freeze over, amazing.

The premise is a good one. A little girl goes along with her father as he captains a huge ship carrying railroad cars across from Michigan to Wisconsin. It takes place during a brutal winter in 1936. Here are some things that I liked about the book.

I think that the author was able to capture the voice of young Fern, age 5, as she found that her mother was too ill to care for her and her father took her along for the voyage that changed how she felt about everything and everyone. For her this was a great adventure. She was often in the company of a young deck hand who tried to keep her in her cabin and amused but was often made to search the ship to find his adventurous young charge. Fern manages to bring a smile to even the most hardened of sailors by the time the voyage back to Michigan was underway.

The book is obviously very well researched which in this case I found both good and bad. I usually like detailed descriptions and I did love the prose about how the ice shifted and moved, how the storm tossed around even this huge ship and the sightings of a mystical ghost ship. Fern even describes a ghost that she is certain has visited her during the night in her cabin, not to frighten her, just to be there. Unfortunately I think the author got too bogged down in details about the ship. There were endless pages with descriptions about every part of the ship, from the pilot house, deck, engine room, crew cabins, and on and on. I would have enjoyed some of this but I felt it was overdone and ended up skimming quite a few pages which I hate to do for fear that I will miss something.

The book is being told at the beginning from Fern’s point of view at age 85 as she looks back on her life. I also think the flow could have been better when the author switches from past to present, etc.

There were some storylines that I felt were left hanging. Why the captain married his second wife and how she never tried to bond with Fern. There was little really described about her years at home with her. It was never stated exactly when Fern’s mother died or from what ailment. We don’t really know much about the years after this voyage until her father died, only what happened afterwards.

I did enjoy the ending, it was a good one, but that was just the last 15 pages unfortunately.

I won’t go through the plot as the blurb gives quite a good summary of that. I’m glad that I read this book but it was just an average read for me in all honesty. I will look forward to more from this talented author.

Thank you to the author and University of Wisconsin press for the ARC of this novel.

[Phyllis Runyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this five stars. First, I love the cover with the little girl peaking out of the corner and the ship below. This is told by a woman in her eighties about the year her father, the captain of The Manitou took her with him on his ship which was a railroad ferry . She was five years old and a very precocious child. It was the middle of winter in 1936 on Lake Michigan, a very dangerous time to be on the lake.
I live 50 miles from this area and the other reason I love this book is because of the descriptions of this whole area, Frakfort, Elberta, Point Betsie, N. and S, Manitou islands, Platte river, Pyramid Point, Empire and Leelanau. I can see the big lake and its colors all changing with the sun shining on its turquoise, green and blue waters, the gray skies of winter and the ice buildup on the lake.
This was a well written and researched book.

[Donna Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free from Net Galley and University of Wisconsin Press in exchange for this honest review. It will be available for purchase on September 18, 2018.

Conceptually this story has great promise. The Great Lakes are where important American naval battles have taken place, and yet very little fiction is set there. This reviewer lived near Lake Erie for most of the 1980s, and I thought this novel would be a sure fire winner.

An elderly woman is looking back at her life, and the story starts with her earliest memories, when her parents separate and her father, a sea captain, takes her from her unstable mother and the girl goes to sea with him. Sailors mutter dark things. There’s a ghost ship that the crew speaks of ominously.

Zacharias nails Fern’s developmental stages, which is critical for anyone writing about a child, particularly if that child is going to voice some of the narrative. Failing to do so breaks the spell entirely, and I am cheered when I see it done correctly. There’s also a great deal of painstaking historical and nautical detail here. As a history teacher I appreciate it, and I learned some things.

Sadly, the character feels weighted down by the setting instead of developed by it. I never feel as if I know the protagonist, but rather as though the author has a great deal of research done and is going to use as much of it as is humanly possible. I pushed my way through it until just before the halfway mark, and then I abandoned ship.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written new book by Lee Zacharias spoke to my soul. It was so well written that I not only followed the story but felt like I was part of the story - I was cold in the ice, hot in the fire and seasick during the storm. If I could give it more than five stars, I would definitely do it!

This novel mainly takes place during the winter of 1936 when the captain of a lake ferry takes his 5 year old daughter Fern with him across Lake Michigan to deliver train cars to Wisconsin. The ice is heavy on the big lake and they face dangerous weather and the possibility of damage from the ice, but at 5 Fern only sees the adventure of being on the great vessel unsupervised and able to explore as much as she wants to. She manages to make friends with many of the crew members including a young deckhand who helps take care of her and also makes friends with a cat that she finds in the train area and a ghost who comes to her room at night. We also see Fern at different parts of her life and learn how this one lake crossing affected the rest of her life.

I read this book slowly so that I wouldn't miss a word of the beautiful writing. I grew up in Michigan and am familiar with the location of the book which made it even more magical for me but you don't have to be a Michigander to enjoy this book. I already know that this will be one of my top books for this year.


Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

[Joyce]

5 stars

I read the PDF edition.

It is 1936 in Northern Michigan as our story begins.

When Fern Halvorsen was five years old, she was to go on a memorable ferry trip with her father Henrik, the Captain of the large boat. He and his wife had lost a child, and she couldn’t get out of bed to take care of Fern. So Henrik takes her with him on the train ferry across Lake Michigan. Along the way, they hear of an ice-locked ship. They are on their way to rescue it.

Fern is fascinated with the boat. She wants to see everything. She makes a friend of a young man named Alv. He takes her on tours of the boat when he is not on duty. She talks to all of the men and most like her, but a couple of them are short with her. She wants to be a ferry-person when she grows up.

Now in her eighty-fifth year, Fern recalls the trip across the lake. She felt a ghost in her room and saw the ghost ship several of the crew saw in the distance. She recalls the kitten she finds in the bottom of the ship. She talks to her father more than she ever has before.

This is a wonderful novel. Fern is a very memorable character. Lee Zacharias tells a story from Fern’s point of view and has the thought process of a five-year old girl down beautifully. The story is told in simple, but wonderful language. I liked Fern very much, as well as the rest of the main characters in this story.

I want to thank NetGalley and the University of Wisconsin Press for forwarding to me a copy of this absolutely wonderful book to read, enjoy and review.

[Warren Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across a review of this beautiful novel that described the novel as "haunted." Yes. Fern Halvorsen, the 85-year-old narrator is haunted by the past and "a childhood journey across Lake Michigan and the secret she has kept since that ill-fated voyage" (Goodreads). She is haunted by the mother who was dying when her father, Henrik Halvorsen took her on this trip in the frigid winter of 1936, on the ship he captained, the Manitou, a huge ship ferrying railroad cars across the lake.

Fern loved the shop, the journey: "It was a huge and powerful ship with a tall, handsome pilothouse and big smoking stacks, no place for a girl, though I loved it, I cannot tell you how much I loved it."
She befriends a stray cat and Alv, a young deckhand befriends her--and they, too, come to haunt her.

But even as she revels in the voyage and its freedom, there are warnings. When a ghost ship is seen, the crew knows danger is coming.

Now Fern, an old woman, remembers.

Beautifully written and painstakingly researched, Across the Great Lake is an experience that will come to haunt the reader. At least this haunting is a good thing.

Across the Great Lake has been named a 2019 Notable Michigan Book and a Finalist for the 2018 Foreword Indies Book of the Year in Literary Fiction.

Recommended.

[Judy Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This stellar and inventive novel is so convincing, you feel that you could invite Fern Halvorsen, the narrator, over for tea so that you can hear even more details from her life. Its carefully woven plot, alternating between five-year-old Fern's experiences and eighty-five-year-old Fern's memories, is smart, moving, captivating. It's the story of a journey: One journey involves crossing Lake Michigan. The other is a journey of the heart. I highly recommend this book.

[A.L. Sirois · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lead character is Fern, a very old woman in early part of the 21st century, who is recalling a trip she took across Lake Michigan in 1936, when she was 5 years old, with her father, Henrik, who was captain of the boat. The narrative switches back and forth, using the trip itself as the main story with lively scenes set aboard her father's boat, MANITOU, as it makes its way slowly across the ice-choked lake while her mother lies dying at home. Aboard the vessel, Fern makes friends with the sailors, especially one young man, 14 years old, who would rather have been a piano player. In between the sections about the voyage Fern recalls other parts of her life. In the end we have a full picture of this woman. The book is affecting and moving, and extremely well-written. I've never been a 5-year-old girl, but the story drew me right in. And although I suppose it could be said that no 5-year-old could have the depth of feeling on display here, and no one would remember that much about. time so far in one's past, let's suspend disbelief and agree that the events of the trip -- and what happened afterward -- shaped Fern's character for the rest of her life. This is a lovely book and I can't recommend it highly enough. Oh, and there are a couple of funny "Sven and Ole" jokes therein. :-)

[Walt Pilcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the first page and imagine the author maintaining its level of insight, detail, realism and wonder throughout a whole book, and you will know what impressed me so much about Across the Great Lake. Other than the story, of course, which is as compelling and engaging as any I've read. How can a now much older woman recall with such clarity how things looked to her as a five-year-old and express a child's thoughts with adult language and perspective while preserving those of the child? Lee Zacharias does it amazingly well while also developing the narrative of the later life of the child and woman with equal skill. It was hard to believe it was fiction. This book is a literary triumph. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Walt Pilcher, author of Everybody Shrugged

[Barbara Stark-Nemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Lee Zacharias’s Across the Great Lake, is her assertion that “There is not one autobiographical detail in this novel,” because it reads like a powerful memoir imbued with exceptional literary art. Told alternately from the points of view of 5-year old Fern Halverson and the 85-year-old woman she will become, this story centers on a 1930s harsh winter journey across Lake Michigan on a railroad ferry captained by Fern’s father. During the passage Fern’s mother dies, a ghost ship is cited, and the ferry survives a horrendous winter storm. Fern’s adventurous, nonconformist character is cemented, even as she faces unbearable loss with a 5-year old mix of pathos and limited understanding. To share Zacharias’ love of this particular lakeshore only adds to the pure pleasure of this novel!

[Earl Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

HIGH 3/LOW 4. I do enjoy me some historical fiction, but it's normally more of a plot kind of thing. The book is a fantastic recollection of the woman's childhood and a little bit of her life. It certainly gets the nostalgia flowing and my Michigan pride going. It jumps around a lot though, in a really confusing way sometimes and plays around with foreshadowing in frustrating ways. Definitely worth the read though.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. And there are definitely aspects I adored!! I loved learning about how ships worked in the 1930s, I loved all the Norwegian culture moments, I loved the silly quips and jokes. I did not love the timeline jumps, the inconsistency of topic between paragraphs, or how it wasn’t interesting until page 130. Oh well, it was a gift.

[Bruce Cashbaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific. Fun, good story, excellent protagonist, time shifts added depth and interest. Well done.

[C.P. Lesley]

Lake Michigan in 1936 is an essential commercial seaway, one that captains and their crews must cross regularly no matter the season, breaking massive ice floes under the prows of their ships and praying that they survive the fierce swells and changeable winds that have left a legacy of ghost ships and wrecks. Into this world comes five-year-old Fern Halvorsen, daughter of the captain of the Manitou, with a small suitcase and her teddy bear. Fern’s mother is consumed with grief after the loss of another child, and her father fears for his daughter’s welfare.

To Fern, the Manitou is a magical place where she can roam largely unsupervised with her new friend Alv. She gets into every corner of the ship, becomes a pet of the crew, and even adopts a stray kitten she finds in the hold. But the winter of 1936 on Lake Michigan is more brutal even than most, and the consequences of that journey and the secret Fern carries away from it haunt her for the rest of her life.

With an ear for crisp dialogue, an unflinching focus on character, and a remarkable instinct for spare but telling detail, Lee Zacharias, creates in Across the Great Lake, an unforgettable tale about the child inside every adult and the long-term effects of the choices we make.

Interview with the author at New Books in Historical Fiction.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Across the Great Lake" begins as a wonderful, if dangerous adventure for young Fern, whose father is captain of a ship that hauls railway cars across Lake Michigan. It's full of mishaps and the unknown. Is there a ghost in Fern's room? The sailors each have their own quirky character, and the scenery is evocative. You can hear the ice crack, the wind blow. It's told through the memories of an 85-year-old, who remembers the good parts, and some of the bad. Fern's young mother doesn't last long in the story. A dramatic climax is not the end, so be prepared for what comes after. Like so much of memory, it is clouded by time and by hopes that some of what happened wasn't really true. It's a good book for a cold night.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more like the anatomy of a ship. I kept waiting for the plot to arrive.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The descriptions of NW Michigan, Lake Michigan, and the car ferries are fascinating. The book reads like it is stream of consciousness without any breaks, and the main character is not engaging.

[Diana Engel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Greensboro writer and teacher Lee Zacharias when I was planning a book publishing panel for Writer’s Group of the Triad during the fall of 2016. I was thrilled that Lee participated and shared her wisdom. As a candid, astute and gifted writer of both fiction and non-fiction, she immediately engaged me, and I bought her 2014 book of essays, The Only Sounds We Make. I recommend this book which, like Across the Great Lake, is authentic and beautifully written. In her first essay, “In the Garden of the Word,” Zacharias concludes by telling the reader about her work as a writer, saying “I am permitted to know characters in mind, dream, and body, in a way that I will never know even those people who are so close to me as my husband and son.” This quote is the perfect segue to her 2018 novel, Across the Great Lake because as I read this story, it became crystal clear that this author knows her main character, Fern, in just such a complete way.

Winter is the perfect season to curl up with this book! To read Across the Great Lake is to re-enter childhood through the child of Fern Halvorsen, to experience ferrying the icy depths of Lake Michigan on a steamer in the winter of 1936. A historically based novel rich in authentic details, Across the Great Lake drew me into Zacharias’ exquisitely developed narrative of Fern’s inner and outer life. This author transports me into Fern’s world: I am on board with her as she learns the ship and its crew, befriends a deckhand and a kitten, and lives through haunting and harrowing adventures. There is so much to love: Zacharias masterfully conveys a child’s perspective on the world, journeying into the mind and heart of her main character as Fern navigates a range of experiences. Yes, there are glimmering joys and gut- wrenching sorrows to feel as I am standing alongside Fern, but what I appreciate even more is the fact that Zacharias gives voice to the ugly parts of existence – discrimination and bullying of Fern’s best friend, Fern’s lack of control of her life as a child and the suppressive gender limitations of the 1930’s and 40’s that hem her in. The narrative gains a lake-depth and dimension from the manner in which the author seamlessly moves back and forth from Fern’s childhood experience to her reflections as an older woman. I am, admittedly, a slow and distracted reader. I rarely read new releases when they are hot off the press, usually due to being immersed in some other title that is two or more years old – which explains why I have only now finished reading this amazing story. I am grateful to have spent my November and December evenings with Fern, to realize again what an excellent writer and storyteller Lee Zacharias is.

[Steve Lindahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great lakes are fresh water lakes. Fresh water freezes at thirty-two degrees fahrenheit, a few degrees warmer than the temperature where salt water freezes. This increases the likelihood that freshwater ice will form quicker and be thicker, which is a problem for ships crossing Lake Michigan.

Across the Great Lake is the story of Manitou, a railroad ferry, in service in the early twentieth century. Railroad ferries were huge boats designed to carry railroad cars. Train engines would load the cars onto tracks built on a deck in the boat, then other engines would unload them when the boat reached the other side of Lake Michigan. This way the railroad could avoid traveling a huge distance to go around the lake.

Manitou was nicknamed the Bull of the Woods because it was a sturdy boat, capable of breaking through thick ice. It had such a great reputation for this it was often sent out to free other ferries trapped in the ice.

Lee Zacharias' novel is written from the point of view of Fern, the five-year-old daughter of the captain of the Manitou. The book has been thoroughly researched and is beautifully written, describing all the details of the boat and of the problems the crew takes on as they cross this massive body of water. By choosing to look at the boat through the naive eyes of a child and have her speak with experienced seamen, Zacharias is able to explain everything from the most elementary details to the more complicated ones. I knew very little about this part of American history and I was fascinated by it. She also managed to accomplish this without stopping the flow of the story.

At the beginning of the book Fern's mother is depressed because she has just lost a baby at the end of her pregnancy. She cannot find the strength to get out of bed to take care of her daughter, so Captain Halvorsen is left with no choice other than to take Fern on his scheduled journey across the lake. Once on board he assigns Alv, a fourteen year-old-boy, the youngest member of the crew, to watch out for her. Their relationship pushes the story along on a personal level.

The narrative bounces back and forth between Fern at age five and Fern as an adult looking back on her experiences. Among the characters other than Fern, Alv is the most important, but we also follow her relationships with her father, her mother, her stepmother and many of the members of the crew. This book captured me and I recommend it highly.

Across the Great Lake won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction, a Michigan Notable Book Award and a silver in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

[Cheryl Gatling]

The year was 1936. Fern’s mother, who had recently lost her baby in a complicated childbirth, either could not or would not get out of bed to care for Fern. So her dad said, “Fine, I’ll take her to work with me.” Fern’s dad was captain of a ferry transporting railroad cars across Lake Michigan. Fern was five years old. It’s the middle of an icy winter. What could go wrong?

Potentially, almost everything. It was ridiculously unsafe. Fern’s father was too busy to watch her. In theory, she was under the care of a teenage boy named Alv, a beginning deckhand, but he also had work to do. In practice, Fern had free range of the ship, poking her nose into everything, and hanging out with the men. She went down to play among the railroad cars, which, even though they were chained in place, could still roll back and forth on their tracks, or tip over if the ship rocked.

And she loved it. She loved everything about the ship, and learning to call everything by its right name. Young as she was, she could recite the names of other ships, and the folklore and history of their wrecks. Her one desire in life was to grow up and become a ship’s captain like her father.

The book switches back and forth between the wide-eyed wonder of the child, and the voice of the mature woman she would become. Older Fern is telling the story. She muses upon how her life turned out, and about how things have changed, and what everything meant. One thing becomes clear. Something happened on the voyage. As hints and foreshadowings are slipped in, a sense of dread grows, mixing with young Fern’s delight.

The voyage is long. There is a leak, which so far the pumps had been able to keep up with. They have to take a side trip to rescue another ship trapped in the ice, and risk getting trapped in the ice themselves. When the hull of the ship can’t break the ice, they send men down onto the surface to break it up with picks. A terrible storm threatens to capsize the ship. But we know Fern will make it through because she survives to become and old woman and narrate her own story. But something will happen. What? What?

The writing is vivid and elegant, and brings to life a vanished time and place. The book is also unusual. It doesn’t fit neatly into any genre, and I can’t think of another book like it. It may strain credibility that a five year old child could remember so many details, but we remember events that have a high emotional impact on us, and this does, and so I choose to believe.

[Janna Zonder · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Things that happen in your childhood come back to haunt you more and more as you get older, and once you are alone you no longer pretend that the life at hand is where you live."

I read Lee Zacharias' Across the Great Lake a few weeks ago, and her characters are still very much alive in my mind, like beloved friends long gone but never to be forgotten. The story is told from the viewpoint of Fern, both as an old woman looking back upon her life and as an adventurous child trying to make sense of events as she was living them, particularly the events that occurred during the winter of 1935 when she "went to the ice" on Lake Michigan with her ferry captain father.

As the older Fern muses, "Those were more innocent times, people like to say, and I suppose they were if you consider that innocence is just ignorance dressed up in nice clothes."

Zacharias masterfully weaves her tale by taking the reader back and forth in time, allowing us to hear Fern's thoughts as she chips away at a frozen seascape of memory, populated by ghosts and burdened by the secrets she has never been able to tell. Zacharias' world is so richly drawn that she managed to make freezing weather and life aboard an ice-bound ship fascinating to this hot-weather-loving landlubber. Often, when I was humming along thinking she was simply describing a scene or an action, she would hit me with an insight into human nature that was so penetrating, so beautifully written, that I had to stop and catch my breath. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves great writing, a strong plot, and rich characterizations. www.leezacharias.com

[Emily Koester · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the winter of 1936, five-year-old Fern experiences her first big adventure when her father, captain of the Manitou, takes her aboard his ship as her mother lays dying at home. The ship must travel through the icy waters of Lake Michigan to deliver train cars, and along the way Fern gets to know the ship's crew, befriending a young deckhand named Alv.

"Across the Great Lake" by Lee Zacharias is told through memories of the adult Fern, but still with the innocence of a young girl thrown into a man's world. As expected with age, Fern's storytelling is at times sporadic and unrelated to the main storyline, and the terminology, although makes the voice of the reading feel more authentic, can be a bit hard to follow at times to the inexperienced eye.

Throughout the story Fern mentions "the blow," which ultimately ends her journey on the ship with the crew she's gotten to know. But Alv, her teddy bear Manitou, a ghost, and a kitten named Whiskers make this adventure as memorable as can be in such a short time.

"I lived being a forgotten girl, a secret girl, a girl whose life began to speak to me down on the car deck and below, in the bowel of the ship where I was not supposed to be, a girl who believed her real life was beginning."

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a total surprise this book was. It has a draw for anyone that is familiar with Western Michigan and the Great Lake. But the way the author draws you onto the great coal-fired Ann Arbor RR ferry, the Manitou, makes this a great read for anyone interested in vessels that worked the Great Lakes. The Manitou transported railroad cars across icy Lake Michigan during a brutally cold winter storm of 1936. It reads very much as a memoir and I was never sure how much of this story was true and what was part of the author's imagination. Superstitions, legends and myths are part of any compelling maritime story.

The narrator, Fern Halvorsen, of this life changing adventure is eightyfive yrs. old but it's not all that difficult to keep in mind that Fern is only five yrs old as you delve into this precarious story. The author's expertise and interest in the details of the ship, and the workers on it, as well as historical information, makes for an absolutely gripping and thought provoking novel that you feel sure must be based on true stories. The author, Lee Zacharias, is very gifted and I'd like to read her four previous books.

[Sophie]

A Masterclass in Emotional Intelligence and Narrative Impact

What a Wonderful World This Could Be is a high yield literary asset that overdelivers on every front. Lee Zacharias operationalizes a coming of age story that’s both emotionally resonant and strategically layered, creating a narrative ecosystem that’s impossible to disengage from.

Alex’s trajectory from a fractured childhood to the gravitational pull of activism, love, loss, and reinvention is executed with enterprise level precision. The character dynamics are robust, the historical context is flawlessly integrated, and the emotional throughput is consistently high. Zacharias doesn’t just tell a story; she architects an experience.

Ted’s disappearance

and its long tail fallou drives a compelling exploration of identity, loyalty, and what “family” really means when the legacy systems collapse. Every chapter compounds value. Every scene accelerates narrative ROI.

If you’re looking for a book that hits with strategic clarity, emotional depth, and zero wasted motion, this is a top-tier deliverable. A fully optimized, unforgettable read.

[Andrew McCuaig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in Michigan and have lived in Wisconsin for the last thirty years, but I did not take a ferry across Lake Michigan until last summer. I decided to read Lee Zacharias's wonderful "Across the Great Lake" on that vacation and thoroughly enjoyed it. I especially loved the 1930s narration, the little girl Fern's encounters on the boat, and the mysterious ghost ship scene which may be the book's finest moment. The story reminded me of other novels of childhood (Michael Ondaatje's "The Cat's Table", for one) where what has happened cannot be totally confirmed or believed, but the feelings of the event are undeniable, and maybe that reality is ultimately more important. Northerners from the Great Lakes region will enjoy the familiar landscape (or maybe I should say lakescape), but the book can also be a wonderful window into a region people have never seen, much like "The Cat's Table" was for me.

[Milford Public Library Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Michigan Notable Book title for 2019.
This is a great historical fiction tale about the Ann Arbor Railroad's car ferries (that's railroad cars, btw),
which moved train cars back and forth across Lake Michigan.
Zacharias's main character Fran, an 85 year old woman, reminisces about her time sailing across the lake with her ship captain father when she was 5.
Her portrayal of young Fran is wholly authentic and believable as a small child.
Those with an interest in Michigan or maritime history will enjoy it immensely.
Complement this one with Ninety Years Crossing Lake Michigan by Grant Brown--a factual book (and another MI Notable Book) that served as one of the main sources for the author's research.
Both are excellent reads.

[Grace Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Lee Zacharias amazes with her exquisite descriptions of well, everything: weather, landscape, ships, characters with precise sounds, sights and scents. But it’s The characters that speak to me are so well-drawn that they’ll be living on in your mind long after you finish the book. The book is basically one long flashback, with 85-year-old Fern Halvorsen recalling the trip she took as a child of five with her father, Captain Henrik Halvorsen, aboard his transport ship Manitou across Lake Michigan in the frigid winter of 1936. Fern’s mother is dying at home, but she finds friends and mystery on the ship, which is transporting railroad cars across the lake. There’s a whisper of the supernatural when a ghostly ship appears, signaling danger for Fern and the others aboard.

[Renate Deutsche Oma · Rating 2 out of 5]

After taking a shipwreck cruise on Thunder Bay (Lake Huron), Alpena, Michigan I became intrigued with shipping on the Great Lakes. I have lived on both sides of Lake Michigan and traveled the entire coast line. I researched shipwrecks at my local SW Michigan libraries and read newspaper reports on microfilm. The sources the author mentioned, I have read. As a retired literature teacher, I could not finish reading the book. Fern did not sound like a five year old. Historical educational details did not ring true. Too much description that did not move the plot. A disappointment to readers, who want to understand shipping before the 1900s.