"“This is the story of how you were loved,” Penelope MacLaughlin whispers to her granddaughter.

Penelope MacLaughlin marries a miller and gradually discovers he is not as she imagined. Nonetheless she remains determined to make the best of life at the lonely mill up the Gunn Brook as she struggles to build a home around her husband’s eccentricities. His increasing absence leaves Penelope to run the mill herself, providing her with a living but also destroying the people she loves most. Penelope struggles with loss and isolation and suffers the gradual erosion of her sense of self. A series of betrayals leaves her with nothing but the mill and her determination to save her grandchildren from their disturbed father. While she can prepare her grandsons for independence, her granddaughter is too young and so receives the greater gift: the story that made them all.

Linda Little's life has been unlike Jackson Bigney's in nearly every way. She grew up on a small farm in Hawkesbury, Ontario, and studied at Queen's University in Kingston and at Memorial University in St. John's. After a few months in English Harbour, on Trinity Bay, she moved to a small farm near River John, Nova Scotia. Like Jackson, she found she had little taste for farm chores; she quit raising cows and now keeps only pigs, chickens, and turkeys during the summer. Like Jackson, she, too, is a terrible fiddle player — so terrible that she has been known to use her rendition of "Skye Boat Song" as revenge. Since childhood, Linda Little has been fascinated by the emotional life of men, especially the tenderness between comrades, both real and fictional. She has found these intense feelings all the more compelling because they are usually concealed and seldom glimpsed by others and has built much of her fiction on the exploration of what lies behind these moments. Strong Hollow is Linda Little#&39;s first novel. Her short fiction has previously appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Descant, The Antigonish Review, and The Journey Prize Anthology.

Linda Little's profile page

"A wonderful historical novel that will be appreciated by fans of this genre."

Celticlady Reviews

"An enduring message of perseverance, courage and hope in the face of overwhelming heartache and oppression that haunts the reader long after the final page."

Flashlight Commentary

"Grist is a moving and melancholy read."

Halifax Chronicle Herald

"Elegantly written, with lovely descriptions of mill work and the transient joys Penelope finds in family life, Grist is a bleak and bittersweet ode to historical women’s strength and endurance."

Reading from the Past

“An epic story by a gifted writer. There are moments in Linda Little's Grist that are breathtaking in both thought and lyricism.”

— Donna Morrissey, author of The Deception of Livvy Higgs

"Linda Little lays bare the hard joys, grit and heartache of women’s lives in the rural Maritimes before and during the Great War. Her writing is exquisite. Gripping, gorgeously imagined and positively haunting, Grist is a tour de force — a novel not just to like but to love. I couldn’t put it down.”

— Carol Bruneau, author of Glass Voices and Purple for Sky

"4 out of 5 stars"

Confessions of an Avid Reader

"Grist is a fairly short novel at 232 pages, but it’s an historical novel that packs a lot of punch. I can honestly say that it will be one of my top favorites read this year. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Read this book!"

The True Book Addict

"I would absolutely recommend Grist to historical fiction readers!"

Peeking Between the Pages