A Novel by William McLure
Echoes on the Lakefront
A boy lost at sea. And the strangers who became his family.
About the Novel
About the Novel
In 1939, eight-year-old Olaf Olsen leaves Chicago with family friends aboard a passenger ship bound for Europe. When the ship is torpedoed in the North Atlantic, Olaf is separated from those he loves and presumed lost at sea.
But Olaf is alive.
Rescued by the crew of a German U-boat, the frightened boy finds himself among men he has been taught to fear. Far from home, acts of kindness, protection, and unexpected tenderness begin to form bonds that cross the boundaries of nation and war.
Back in Chicago, Olaf's parents, Karl and Ingrid, and his friend Tommy struggle with the uncertainty of his disappearance. In Portugal, eight-year-old Alice and her family find their own lives intertwined with Heinrich and Hannah in the Alcântara Valley, where grief, memory, and family have deep roots.
Moving between Chicago, the North Atlantic, Lisbon, and the Portuguese countryside, Echoes on the Lakefront is a story of children and parents, loss and hope, and the unexpected people who become family when they are needed most.
Themes
Parents & Children
The powerful bonds between parents and children, and the instinct to protect, comfort, and hold close.
Loss & Memory
How people carry those they love through absence, uncertainty, grief, and the objects and places that preserve their memory.
Compassion & Found Family
How strangers can cross boundaries of language, nationality, and circumstance to care for one another as family.
Childhood & Hope
The resilience of children and the small acts of love, friendship, and kindness that help them endure an uncertain world.
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