South of Superior [Hardcover]

Ellen Airgood (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 9, 2011

A debut novel full of heart, in which love, friendship, and charity teach a young woman to live a bigger life.

When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she isn't prepared for how much her life will change.

Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters-one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents. It's a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but friendship, community, and compassion run deeper. As the story hurtles along-featuring a lost child, a dashed love, a car accident, a wedding, a fire, and a romantic reunion-Gladys, Arbutus, and the rest of the town teach Madeline more about life, love, and goodwill than she's learned in a lifetime.

A heartwarming novel, South of Superior explores the deep reward in caring for others, and shows how one who is poor in pocket can be rich in so many other ways, and how little it often takes to make someone happy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Airgood's charming yet uninspired debut, Madeline Stone takes a job caring for Gladys Hansen, the final companion of the grandfather she never knew, and Gladys's ailing sister in McAllaster, Mich. On the north coast of Lake Superior she finds "a wide, wild quiet, so spacious it seemed endless, and she wondered how it might change a person." Gladys, the younger, feistier of the two sisters, is desperate to hold onto the old ways even as modern life becomes too obvious to ignore. She's the bad cop to her sister's good, and Madeline finds it hard to adjust to her meanness. She also finds it discomfiting when locals comment on her resemblance to ancestors she never knew, and Gladys is less than forthcoming about the Stone family history. To help fill her days, Madeline takes a part-time job at the local pizzeria and becomes close to Paul, the owner, who has financial woes of his own. Over time, Madeline and Gladys make peace, and old secrets are revealed. An abandoned child that Madeline takes in finally allows Airgood to address her prevailing theme—the true nature of family. (June)

About the Author

Ellen Airgood runs a diner in Grand Marais, Michigan. This is her first novel.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (June 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594487936
• ISBN-13: 978-1594487934
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Northern Perspective June 15, 2011

By John Flood

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This novel may have "South" in the title, but it is full of the North. An engaging story of struggle and discovery, South of Superior could only take place in Michigan's UP. The quirky characters are interesting and quirky partly because life in the far north on the coast of Lake Superior is hard. The characters are molded by the intense cold and long snowy winters, the emptiness and wildness. Reading South of Superior, you're not surprised that people make the choice to live there, however. The place is full of beauty and wonder. Even the sounds and smells are satisfying. And the people in South of Superior, for all their differences and rivalries, are close, caring and filled with the right priorities. That's what the main character, Madeline Stone, learns when she returns from Chicago to the place of her roots. A charming and satisfying book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Small Town Dynamics are Charming June 16, 2011

By Book Sake VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book starts off a little slow, but in the end you will like how the story progresses and the characters end up. It's a story that really opened my eyes to the dynamics of a small town where people don't have much, but they all share what they can. It took a little while for me to get the family tree straight, but it didn't really make a difference because the whole town seems like part of the family eventually. I found that I was really hopeful for these characters as I read, feeling like they deserved all the happiness they could get, especially after enduring some of the hardships they had been through. While the main character Madeline goes to McAllaster to take care of Arbutus, she is also looking for answers about the family that she never knew. After realizing that there is more to the story of her mother and grandfather, she turns to developing herself and comes full circle in terms of what she was looking for in terms of her family.

Reviewed by Gabi for Book Sake.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior June 23, 2011

By McGuffy Ann

Format:Hardcover

Sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize where "Home" is, that perhaps "home" was never really a place but rather a part of us.

Though her roots were technically in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan, Madeline Stone was detached from hers. Having been rejected by her grandfather and abandoned by her mother, she ended up in Chicago, Illinois.

When a lifelong friend of her grandfather needs help, Madeline is drawn back to the place of her birth and that of her family's. Her reservations are many, including her unresolved feelings regarding her grandfather.

The beauty of the land attracts tourists, and the area residents live for them, knowing they rely on that as a necessary source of income, just to survive year to year, as Madeline learns. The roots run deep here, generation to generation.

Loyalty runs deep, as well. Loyalty to the land that supplies them, maintains them, defines them. This loyalty is the driving force of the people in this small town, South of Superior. Through years of relationships, times both good and bad, the people held strong, united by beliefs and values.

In this place of wild beauty, with its rich history rooted in its people, land and lore, Madeline is surprised to find purpose, and peace of both mind and heart. She finds love in its many forms and ages.

South of Superior is strong in character image and voice. While the ways of the people are not necessarily simple, they are genuine and hard-earned. Both characters and setting feel all that a "hometown" should feel.

Ellen Airgood has beautifully captured the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that I know and love. This book will stay with you, as well it should.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes you don't know you're lost until you find yourself. July 21, 2011

By Hart Johnson

Format:Hardcover

Madeline Stone is working in a Chicago restaurant, engaged to a well-off man, and looking forward to art school, but she has felt discontented since the death of her guardian Emmy, which followed a very long illness. She feels lost and 'off'.

When she receives a request from the long-time lover of the grandfather who refused to acknowledge her--who left her with a stranger, rather than taking her in when her mother ran off, she is not sure what to think. But Gladys is insistent... she needs help with her sister who is a stroke survivor, and thinks Madeline is the perfect person to do it--to move a couple hundred miles north to a tiny town on the banks of Lake Superior... near her roots... to learn who she is while she provides care for Arbutus.

The offer isn't very appealing, but the women are in Chicago staying with Arbutus's son, so what is the harm in meeting them? And Arbutus is one of those rare people who brings life joy... a pillar... the kind of person who makes you want to reach for what you are... and Madeline decides she needs to go. She breaks off her engagement, quits her job, packs her aging car and drives to another life.

McAllister is tiny. A tourist town in the summer, but without an income of any sort in the winter, so people are very poor. They have to go a long ways to get most things, and in spite of not always liking things their townsmen do, they come through for each other when it matters. These are things you can't learn without living through them... Madeline falls, gets up, fails, and goes on... there is the gamut of emotions, but mostly there is self-discovery.

Assessment?

This is really a great book. I love tiny towns--they become characters in the story.... And I love a story where the MC is sure they want one thing, and it turns out they didn't even know themselves well enough to know what they want. It is a coming of age among adults, and I think these stories are in many ways even more interesting than coming of age among young people. It takes a while to learn who we are.

So if you are at all inclined, I definitely recommend it. Read more ›