WE THE SEA TURTLES

Turtles swim in and out of this collection of nine gentle stories.

Canadian novelist Kadarusman uses short stories to deftly explore emotional turning points in young lives. At some point in each of these moving narratives, the young protagonists encounter turtles, usually sea turtles. A boy in New York City is profoundly disturbed by the plight of sea turtles but is helped by a neighbor who understands his neurodivergence. A girl who lost her father in the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 likes to imagine him reincarnated as a kura kura, a sea turtle. On an island in Canada a girl assures two grieving visitors that the sight of a snapping turtle is lucky. Only the account of an ill-educated traveler encountering the real “Little Mermaid” tale in Denmark seems stretched. All have a strong environmental component; the writer’s own love for the natural world is evident. The settings are well depicted, and the racially, nationally, and economically diverse characters are distinctive. The collection is bracketed by accounts of several sea turtles’ long journeys and an imagined first-person reflection from one. “We the sea turtles are ancient stewards of our planet.” Like the turtles, these stories range widely around the world, from Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada, to Malaysia and Singapore. Tales set in countries where Indigenous peoples were the original occupants are prefaced by a land acknowledgment.

An exploration to be savored.