Icelandic Roots Book Club Meets Thursday, February 6th
By Heather Lytwyn
Letters to Brian: A Year of Living and Remembrance is a collection of love letters Martha Brooks wrote to her husband after tragically losing him to brain cancer in 2012. It seems a fitting topic during the month of Valentine’s Day, because it is a story that struggles with the journey of survival after 45 years of sharing a life with one’s soul mate. It resonates with universal loss and the attempt to reinvent ourselves when we feel we will not survive. It is a testament to the love and support that is out there, if we are wise enough to see that we are not as alone as we might assume.
Born and raised in Ninette, Manitoba Martha spent most of her life in Winnipeg, but is currently living in Alberta. She was a guest for the Icelandic Roots Book Club in April of 2024, when we discussed Dear Miss Lovelorn: Prose and Possibility, a novel about a young female patient living in a tuberculosis sanatorium.
In the conversation during our book club that evening, Jack Plumley, one of our Icelandic Roots volunteers and a writer himself, asked her where her inspirations came from. What motivated her to write? She said that the ideas came from things she had a connection with; things that are true and authentic, things like loss and betrayal. She advised him to write about things that keep him awake at night - to find his true voice and things he truly wanted to say. Those goals are clearly present in her struggle to find meaning in her life in her moving Letters to Brian. As the hours, days, and weeks unfold, she comes to realize that he is still present with her, still encouraging her to embrace life, to keep writing, singing, and sharing her stories with others.
Martha is a very dynamic person who shines her light as an author, playwright, and jazz singer. Her talent has been recognized in several awards for her diverse talents.
In 2016, Letters to Brian won the Manitoba Book Award for non-Fiction (the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award). Another sample of her accolades came in 2002 when she won both the Prairie Music Award for outstanding jazz album Change of Heart, and the Governor General’s Award for English language children’s literature for her young adult novel True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
Letters to Brian: A Year of Living and Remembrance can be purchased through Amazon as a Kindle edition or paperback, or at HP Tergesen & Sons in Gimli, Manitoba. I am looking forward to connecting with our Icelandic Roots members and hearing what you all have to say about love and resilience on Thursday Feb 6th at 7 pm CST.
The link to connect will be sent in a Samkoma newsletter for members on Wednesday, Feb 5.