The Last Tale of Norah Bow

In 1926, during Prohibition, Vital Bow is abducted at gunpoint during dinner at the family cottage in Rye Beach, Ohio. His intrepid fourteen-year-old daughter, Norah Bow, discovers her father’s involvement in a rum-running gang operating on Lake Erie and determines to sail north to rescue him. En route, Norah rescues Ruby Francoeur, an enigmatic woman of easy virtue who conceals secrets of her own. With Ruby as crew, Norah enters an island-and-city world of eccentric and monstrous characters who test her resolve, strength, and knowledge as both a young woman and a skipper. NORAH BOW is a coming-of-age story told by an elder Norah, a tale filled with characters steeped in betrayal, remorse, and a fierce desire for more lives. Norah Bow is a story about family secrets, self-reliance, and the complicated nature of memory itself.

J.P. White has published essays, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry in hundreds of places including The Nation, The New Republic, The Gettysburg Review, Agni Review and Poetry. He is the author of the novel, Every Boat Turns South. His 6th book of poems, A Tree Becomes a Room, was the recent winner of the White Pine Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from White Pine Press in 2023. He is the editor-at-large for Plant-Human Quarterly.