‘The Pillagers’ Guide to Arctic Pianos’ teaches love and resilience

Pianos are everywhere, literally, in Kendra Langford Shaw’s debut novel.

“The Pillagers’ Guide to Arctic Pianos” follows the Spahr family throughout the generations as they navigate the brutality and beauty of life in the Arctic territories.

Twelve-year-old Moose Bloomer arrives in the Arctic, where he sets out with his mother, stepfather and unborn half-brother to travel hundreds of miles in search of land promised under the Homestead Act.

As part of the condition of the journey, each family must bring with them “at least one pianoforte.” The Bloomers have brought the Napolean, which they will drag across the territory on sleds until they reach their new home. Moose is uncertain about the journey but full of hope for his new future.

Generations later, the Spahrs – Moose’s great-great-great-granddaughter Viola and husband Fry, with their three children Milda, Finley and Temperance – live in a small home suspended by poles over the water. The aptly named Jubilation House is the center of the loving and enthusiastic family, where they raise octopuses and other oceanic crops to sell and trade.

The strength of the book is the way in which the characters’ stories weave together to tell a single story of love and family in the face of challenges.

The characters are united across the generations by the Napolean.

“A second later they’d purchased her, and just like that she was pinioned with all of the Bloomer family’s hopes,” Shaw writes of the Napoleon. Moose’s story is about novelty – he’s seeking the family he’s always wanted in a new land. The cold, white expanse of the arctic is as close to a blank slate as you’ll find.

Long after Moose’s time, Finley and Milda also find their motivation in the Napoleon. The siblings search for the pianofortes of Moose’s era that have been lost in the sea. Finley is particularly obsessed with finding his family’s piano. This time, however, they’re not trying to build a new life; they’re trying to preserve it. The siblings need the money from finding fortes, which have become valuable collectibles to keep their farm and way of life afloat.

The family must face the realities of living in a cruel environment. The dichotomy of the ocean provides for the family, but is also their greatest enemy. The Spahrs make their living from what the ocean offers − squid, kelp and pianos − while also facing rising tides that threaten their home and their livelihoods.

Each character is driven by different factors, yet each one feels substantial and important. Characters are connected to each other and to their history in surprising ways.

Shaw balances the harshness of the world her characters inhabit with the affection they find in each other. Even when dark things happen to the protagonists, the book retains its messages of hope and family.

Early in the novel, as Milda takes care of octopuses her family raises, she contemplates their lives. She doesn’t understand why the octopuses, having been let out of their enclosure “returned at exactly the same time every evening. Squeezed back through the porthole and took up nesting among their loot. Eager to resume the pleasures of familiar rituals.”

Milda might not understand at this point in her life, but Shaw does, and “The Pillager’s Guide to Arctic Pianos” vividly explains the value of home and family.