‘Fireflies in Winter’ by Eleanor Shearer; Berkley; 320 pages; $30
With her intriguing “Fireflies in Winter,” author Eleanor Shearer turns a lens on a piece of history that may have receded into obscurity, while showing the human side of facts and figures.
As Shearer writes: “In 1796, a group of Maroons — runaway slaves who had struck a deal with the British to form their own independent communities — was deported from Jamaica to Nova Scotia.” Shearer makes the most of this historical footnote linking Jamaica and Canada to show the experience of migrating from a tropical place to a cold one, and how these free Black people established a town in Nova Scotia yet were constantly on edge as they maneuvered around those who wanted to enslave them again.
Food is scarce, as is money. The community is close, not out of concern but necessity — several families have to live together to keep warm. “Fireflies in Winter” explores friendship, the healing power of love and surviving a harsh environment.
Shearer shows the hard life of Cora, a 20-year-old orphan who was forced to come to Nova Scotia. Cora misses Jamaica, as “the core of her has always been the forests of home.” She feels unwelcomed by her foster family, who want her to marry. She frequently wanders into the “glittering world” of the forest to escape the stifling atmosphere of her foster family.
(Berkley/Courtesy)
In the wild, the silence is so “thick” she can hear “every snapping twig.” Cora sees the different ways people are forced to live. Many are taken advantage of due to their lack of education, forced into hard labor on a rich man’s estate. “Cora has always lived at the edge of others’ unfreedom.”
On her excursions, Cora meets Agnes, who was taught how to survive in the wild by the indigenous Mi’kmaq people. Agnes has become used to being alone, but Cora shows her the value of friendship. The two women fall in love, believing their solitary life in the woods is the best place to conceal their love. A murder trial, the circumstances of which Shearer doesn’t detail until the end, alternates with Cora and Agnes’ story.
Shearer keeps the area’s sheer-yet-harsh beauty paramount in “Fireflies in Winter.” There are bear attacks to fear, but there also is the joy of watching humpback whales “dancing,” signaling the beginning of summer, hope and rebirth.
