The Narrowboat Summer

 

The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson

Original Title: Three Women and a Boat

Fiction

2020 Flatiron Books

Finished on July 1, 2022

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the author of Meet Me at the Museum, a charming novel of second chances, about three women, one dog, and the narrowboat that brings them together.

Eve expected Sally to come festooned with suitcases and overnight bags packed with everything she owned, but she was wrong. She arrived on foot, with a rucksack and a carrier bag. “I just walked away,” she said, climbing on to the boat. Eve knew what she meant.

Meet Eve, who has left her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia, a defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, who is suddenly landlocked and vulnerable.

Before they quite know what they’ve done, Sally and Eve agree to drive Anastasia’s narrowboat on a journey through the canals of England, as she awaits a life-saving operation. As they glide gently – and not so gently – through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of narrowboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds. At summer’s end, all three women must decide whether to return to the lives they left behind, or forge a new path forward.

Candid, hilarious, and uplifting, The Narrowboat Summer is a novel of second chances, celebrating the power of friendship and new experience to change one’s life, at any age.

I have always loved being on or near the water, whether that be sailing on a lake, cruising on a river, or simply sitting by the ocean. My husband and I have cruised the San Juan Islands (on my dad and stepmom's boat), and I took a fabulous two-week cruise (on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers) with my mom a few years ago. Each of these excursions involved traveling through locks, so I was interested to read Anne Youngson's novel, The Narrowboat Summer, which centers around two strangers (who become great friends) traveling the canals of England on a narrowboat. It took me a few chapters to get fully immersed in the story, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I came to care about Eve and Sally, as well as Anastasia and her goofy dog Noah. With Youngson's attention to detail, I felt like I was on the journey with this motley crew.

On the towpath of a canal in a town not far from London, not far from the coast, is moored a narrowboat pained dark blue with the name Number One picked out in red lettering on the prow. It is tethered tightly to the bank with ropes made wet by the rain and slimy with age, wrapped around pegs bent out of shape by the misaimed blows of a lump hammer. It is still in the water. At either end the doors are fast shut and the windows along the side are latched. On the roof is a skylight, cantilevered up to let the fresh air into the cabin below. Puddles of water on the deck and roof show that it has been raining, but at this moment it is not. 

I had hoped for a happy ending, and I wasn't disappointed. If you're looking for a feel-good read (which is neither cloying nor sentimental), The Narrowboat Summer is just the ticket. I not only want to read it again, but I'm looking forward to trying Youngson's previous work, Meet Me at the Museum.

In addition to this uplifting story, I fell in love with the cover art illustration. You can find more information about the artist, Sarah Maycock, here and here. 

Eve drove the Number One through the first ten locks and Sally thought that, when she took over, there would be time to talk in the dripping gloom of an empty lock while that waited for it to fill up. This, however, proved impossible. It was necessary to keep the boat steady in the lock, avoid it drifting too far forward, where the nose could become trapped on a beam of the gate, or too far back, where the sill could foul the rudder, and the concentration needed, plus the noise, the engines and the roar of the water coming into the lock, meant that nothing could be said that needed consideration, until the last, calm moments as the lock filled right to the top, when the Grimm's crew swapped over. 

The following photos are from the Great Rivers of Europe Cruise. We traveled through 66 locks (many while we were sleeping) over the course of two weeks. 

Inside the lock

Gate closing

Water rising

These photos (below) are of the Ballard Locks in Seattle. The locks connect Puget Sound with Lake Union and Lake Washington.

Click here for more information about the operation of canal locks.