“As my grandfather once wrote, "Courage is grace under pressure." No quote in the literary world better encapsulates the characters, motivations and essence of Peter Cloutier's triumphant novel, What We Were Making than this one. Raised in the company of not only great writers but great fishermen, I learned from an early age that a writer's relationship with character or a fisherman's relationship with, well, fish, comes down to just that: courage. Like many of my grandfather's great works, this novel and its delightful characters stand for something and do so with courage to make that something count.

Ultimately, fishing was Papa's greatest escape, not in competition with his writing, but in harmony. Bill, one half of our narrator duo and an avid waterman, and Jane, a justice-seeking professional and our other narratorial half, will soon arrive at a not-so-very-different crossroads, where their priorities and values are tested. And it is not then a question of which course Bill and Jane will choose between two extremely different lives, as it never seemed to be for Papa when it came to choosing between writing and fishing, but how they will build something together and something greater than themselves.

Peter's book is a harbor for courage: courageous characters, courageous writing, courageous causes. I thank him for this tremendous homage to the worlds of land and sea, of beautiful conflicts of interest, and I hope that all readers may find the same grace, eloquence, and courage that I found in What We Were Making. ”