The Gill Netters

By Alice Judy Behrend

Set n the upper lakes country of Wisconsin and Michigan after the Civil War, this historical novel navigates the excitement and danger of commercial fishing and new love.

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The Johannsen family is of diverse nationality, race, and age, but they are united in their determination to follow the whitefish and make a home in their new country.  Leander Johannsen brought his family to Wisconsin from Fano Island off the coast of Denmark in the mid 1800s.  By the time their son, Aaron, returns from the "Blue-Gray War," the whitefish have migrated north, and so the family sails across the water to build a new settlement on the wild shores of Michigan.

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Aaron go to town to learn coopering so that they will have barrels to ship the fish, and also to find a place for Liza, a Tennessee mountain girl he met during the war and brought back.  Liza, her daughter, and her former servant take care of his ailing mother.  All of the women learn to cope with fear and anxiety when sudden weather changes bring perverse winds and storms to the fishermen.

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Life brings trouble in the form of epidemics and illnesses, too, but there is hope and challenge in fishing the unpredictable waters.