He buys all the copies of the paper he can find. Otto sees Etta’s photo in the newspaper, accompanied by a story on her journey. Etta and Russell enter into a love affair while Otto is overseas. Otto’s hair turns white from the stress of his service. Otto sends Etta a photo of himself in uniform, and she sends him a photo back. When World War II breaks out, Otto joins the army and ships out, but Russell cannot because of his leg, and so stays behind. Russell breaks his leg and it does not heal well. In the past, Otto remembers how he and Russell went to school, where Etta was a teacher despite not being much older than them. His first few attempts to make cinnamon rolls fail, but he eventually makes some that are at least edible.

Back at the farm, Otto is starving, and begins making the recipes she left behind. James helps her navigate, and she tells James about her life and her purpose in walking to the ocean. She decides to name him James, and asks if he will be with her for the whole walk. The coyote follows her as she heads into town to purchase better shoes, and continues to follow her. When she wakes up, a coyote is licking the blood on her feet. She falls asleep in a field and has disturbing dreams. Russell recalls being brought out into the country as a child and meeting his aunt and uncle, who wanted children but had been unable to have any of their own.Įtta keeps walking, and soon her feet begin to bleed and blister.

Otto recalls his family adopting a young boy named Russell, who has no parents and is unwanted by his own family.

Etta walks through neighboring farms and meets a man named Russell and exchanges pleasantries with him, then catalogs all of the things she has brought with her for her journey. Otto’s mother was regarded as something magical because all of her children survived during the Great Depression, when child mortality was very high. Otto recalls growing up with fourteen brothers and sisters as a child, while Etta only had a single sibling, a sister named Alma. He briefly considers going after her, but instead calculates how far she will have to walk to see the water: More than 3,000 kilometers. Along with the letter are a stack of recipe cards, which Otto knows are so he will be able to feed himself while she is gone. She says she hopes to remember to come back. The novel begins with a man named Otto reading a letter from a woman named Etta, informing him that she has gone to walk to the water, which she has never seen. Hooper’s debut novel, the story is told via complex imagery and poetic language, using magical realist techniques to evoke the inner landscape of people reared in a hardscrabble time trying to make sense of their existence. Etta and Otto and Russell and James is a novel by Emma Hooper, published in 2015.

Etta otto russell james