Writers’ biographical notes tend to be stingy: they name a few works and sometimes go so far as to disclose where the writer lives. By contrast, Emma Hooper’s bio is a treat: not only is the author a specialist on retro-futurism but a musician whose solo project Waitress for the Bees toured internationally and earned her a Finnish Cultural Knighthood. Irresistible! And important, because this is one writer whose work works in a variety of ways: full of light and air but never above itself; earthy and musical and magical all at the same time. The novel opens with 82-year-old Etta’s note to her husband: “Otto, I’ve gone. I’ve never seen the water, so I’ve gone there. Don’t worry, I’ve left you the truck. I can walk. I will try to remembe