"The Summer Before The Storm a very
good read
Saga set in early 1900s gives insight as to how the
rich and famous lived and played in Muskoka
BY GILLIAN BRUNETTE
HUNTSVILLE FORESTER - Wednesday Mar. 19, 2008
It was by chance that Gabriele Wills' novel The Summer
Before the Storm fell into my lap. It had been forwarded to the Forester
for review and it was the cover that caught my eye.
One shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the glossy
photograph of the prow of an antique boat and the line "The First of the
Muskoka Novels" invited me in.
Further perusal showed the photograph was that of a
Disappearing Propeller boat, commonly known as a Dippy, and was the work of the
author's daughter Melanie.
I began to read and was immediately drawn toward the
saga's rich cast of fictitious characters - the aristocratic Wyndhams and their
social circle of friends, who while away their summers amid the pristine
island-dotted lakes, the granite cliffs and pine-scented forests of Muskoka in
1914.
Charming, ambitious and destitute Jack Wyndham is the son
of disowned Alex Wyndham. When his father dies, Jack seeks a better life and
ingratiates himself with the family matriarch, Augusta Wyndham.
He is invited to spend a few weeks at the Wyndhams' summer
home on Wyndwood Island, where he meets his beautiful, headstrong, and
audacious cousin, Victoria.
With three sisters and a mother living in virtual poverty,
Jack schemes toward ensuring a financially secure future for himself and his
family.
Throughout the long hot summer the privileged amuse
themselves with glittering balls, lavish picnics and friendly competitions,
unaware that the dark clouds forming over Europe are about to end their idyllic
Muskoka summer, and charmed lives will unravel with the onset of the Great
War.
It is impossible not to be drawn into the lives and
emotions of the eminently believable characters as they journey from romantic
moonlight cruises to the horrific sinking of the Lusitania, genteel Muskoka to
wartime Britain, regattas on the water to combat in the skies over France,
extravagant mansions to deadly trenches.
Wills melds historical fact and fiction with aplomb,
giving the reader insight into Muskoka's gracious bygone era and the horrors
that faced so many young Canadian men and women in World War I.
Born in Germany, Wills emigrated to Canada as a young
child. She says her fascination with Muskoka began in the 1960s when, as a
teenager, she stayed for weeks every summer at a friend's cottage on Mazengah
Island on Lake Rosseau. The cottage had been built by her friend's
great-grandfather.
"Hearing wonderful tales of the old days, I knew that one
day I would write about that genteel time in legendary Muskoka," Wills says in
the forward of her book.
An independent author, Wills has written two other books,
Moon Hall and A Place to Call Home, and a short story, Mrs. Beresford's
Disgrace, which won an honourable mention in the Canadian Authors Association
short story contest.
Wills is currently hard at work researching and writing
the much-anticipated second book in the Muskoka Novels series.
"I am, in fact, going to France in April to complete some
research as my characters spend a large part of Book 2 still in the war. I'm
hoping to have the book in print by the fall, if not sooner," she said.
The Summer Before the Storm is published by
Mindshadows.com and is available at select stores and online at
mindshadows.com. "
