Bay of Spirits

“Bay of Spirits paints a vivid picture of a man and his love for a lost place and time. It is an engaging read by a wonderful raconteur, as relevant today as he ever was.” —The Globe and Mail

“Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home’s cultures and environment.” —Publishers Weekly

“Mowat, as memoirist . . . gazes outward at the world, human, animal and natural, with insatiable curiosity and passion.” —Ottawa Citizen

“[A] moving memoir of the love of a woman and the love of a particular place.” —Booklist

“If this deeply felt book, written in the middle of Mowat’s ninth decade, is a love song to his life’s companion, it is also a love song to a time and place in which he found the happiness he sought. All in all, a lovely book.” —Washington Post

“Mowat describes with sailor’s envy many enchanting, exhilarating and dangerous journeys in and out of the tiniest outport villages. It is here he is at his best, telling the tales of the local people in their dialect and colour.” —Halifax Chronicle Herald

“This is a briny maritime tale from head to toe, with Farley and Clare finding any excuse at all to continue exploring. . . . Farley Mowat has led a charmed and lucky life. Blessed with an endlessly curious and energetic cast of mind and an outrageously colourful personality, he has also been gifted with a perfect life companion and a love that has endured for many decades.” —Quill & Quire

“Mowat reminisces about his early romance with his wife-to-be, but he’s preoccupied with a larger, harder love story—his courtship, adoration and disappointments with Newfoundland at the end of the outpost era.” —Canadian Geographic