Vintage 1954

Finished March 20
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce

This light novel has an interesting premise, time travel from wine made from grapes affected by an alien spacecraft. It's way better than that sounds.
Back in 1954, Pierre Chauveau saw a UFO. It appeared suddenly above his vineyard, stayed for a while, then suddenly disappeared. He was not the only one to report a sighting that year. No explanation for the phenomenon was ever discovered. In 1978, he opened a bottle of wine that he had laid down from that vintage, and shared a little (as he always did) with his German shepherd. The next morning, the two of them set off for work at the winery, but never arrived.
The main story begins in 2017, where a group of people get together for an impromptu celebration at an apartment building. They are all living there, some temporarily like Bob Brown, an American staying in an Airbnb on a long-planned trip to Paris, missing his wife Goldie who is in a coma in hospital back home in Milwaukee, and who was supposed to be with him. Others had recently moved into the building, like Magalie Lecoeur, a restoration specialist who took over a former carpet shop on the ground floor and used the former sixth floor storeroom as her apartment. Julien Chauveau, great-grandson of Pierre, also recently moved in to a small apartment in the building. Julien is a barman at the famous Harry's Bar, and has always been fascinated by his ancestor's story. Hubert Larnaudie, on the other hand, has lived in the building his whole life. It was his family who originally built it in 1868, and gradually sold off bits as they needed the funds. He retains a lot of pride in the building and its fixtures and accoutrements, and has recently raised the issue of the security of the cellars, many of whose shutters are broken leading to some recent burglaries. When he goes down to the cellars to check on them, he is drawn back into memories as he finds the myriad of items his family has stored over the years. One of them is a bottle of 1954 wine. When he gets locked in the cellars, he cries out for help, and it is Bob, arriving at the apartment, who hears his call for help. As he sends Bob to Magalie for assistance, Julien is also there, and after releasing Hubert and securing the cellars temporarily, Hubert invites them up to his apartment to share the bottle of wine.
When they awake and venture out the next morning, they find themselves in a bright sunny Paris, and each only gradually realizes that it is 1954. And then the adventures begin as they find each other and try to figure out how to get back to their own time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Sounding Line

Finished February 4
Sounding Line by Anne DeGrace
This novel is set in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia, and follows an incident of a UFO that disappeared into the bay, and what the effect is on the community.
We see young Pocket Snow and his family, a mother slowly fading, a father afraid to let her go, and an uncle holding the family together.
We see Pocket's classmate Cuff and his boasting and wild schemes that come to nothing. There is also their quieter friend Ernie and his silent determination.
This is a small but closeknit community and while there are disagreements and divisions, they also come together when it is needed.
Arriving in town is a young reporter from Ottawa, unsure of himself, and looking for a way forward to his own life. Also new to town is a woman with psychic abilities who has come to assure the aliens that they are welcomed.
Despite the initial event and its otherworldliness, this novel is very grounded. One gets a very real sense of the community and the dreams of the young men here.
Based on a true event of a UFO sighting in Nova Scotia in the 1960s, this novel takes the idea in interesting directions. A great read.