"She knew water. She knew ice.” Essi Kivi is observant and wise beyond her years. Her grief-torn world pulls us in, as she struggles to make sense of the cold hard facts about her sister, Hanna. In this soulful novel about the fateful choices people make during the Great Depression, we meet a young woman braving the odds to heal her family. Liisa Kovala writes with wisdom, heart, and intuition. She knows instinctively what drives justice-seekers, especially when they’re women—what they carry in their bones, what they’ll risk to unearth secrets and bring dark truths to light. And why, sometimes, hearts must break before they can be healed.

​

~ Susan Scott, ed., Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers

​

In her second novel, Like Water for Weary Souls, Liisa Kovala weaves the story of a Finnish-Canadian family in Sudbury that is struggling with the obstacles that many new Canadians still face today: the friction between parents and children, the desire for each generation to better itself in terms of career goals, and the search for a place to call home. It’s also the tale of two sisters who struggle to understand one another, but who keep secrets of their own, as well. The resiliency of the characters is embodied in the Finnish word sisu, an idea that conjures the tenacity and strength of not just existing—but thriving—in a new world. Beautifully written and aptly evocative of a specific time and place in Northern Ontario history, Like Water for Weary Souls is a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. 

 

~Kim Fahner, author of The Donoghue Girl

​​

Liisa Kovala’s Like Water for Weary Souls draws readers into the gripping atmosphere of 1930s Northern Ontario, a challenging landscape that tests the human spirit. This is more than a mystery; it’s a heartfelt story about the deep strength of immigrant women and the lengths one sister will go to for truth. As young Essi Kivi searches for answers about Hanna's tragic death, the novel explores themes of love, loss, and quiet determination. Kovala offers a vivid and honest look at a difficult time, crafting a story that stays with you, showing how powerful the human spirit can be even in the face of great sorrow.  

​

~Caroline Topperman, author of Your Roots Cast a Shadow

​

A family tragedy. A murder. A young and naive, but gutsy Finish immigrant woman determined to find justice for her sister and answers for her bereaved parents. In Like Water for Weary Souls, Liisa Kovala  has crafted a fast paced, dramatic story that takes you from a small subsistence farm in the declining countryside to the gritty underbelly of a northern Ontario mining town in 1933–the Depression era when people struggled to exist, but still dared to dream of something better. Like Water for Weary Souls will make you holler at injustice, cry at betrayal and cheer at triumph. It embodies the tenacity and hopefulness of the human spirit.

 

~Emily De Angelis, award-winning author of The Stones of Burren Bay 

​​​

Part murder mystery, part romance, part family drama— two sisters in the rugged 1930s find themselves entangled in circumstance--one drawn to the promise land of Karelia that may exist only in dreams, the other bound by the shadow of a suspicious death. Though familial devotion runs deep, secrets fester like frost beneath thawing earth. This wonderful elixir of story is steeped in the bitter herbs of reality and the sweetness of possibility.  

​

~Eleanor Albanese, award-winning author of If Tenderness be Gold

​

A touching story of family secrets and dreams, Like Water for Weary Souls beautifully delineates the opportunities and dangers of life in a Northern Ontario mining community in the grinding poverty of the 1930s. Sisters Esteri and Hanna Kivi demonstrate the persistence and courage of their Finnish immigrant heritage—encountering prejudice and injustice in Canada while considering the dubious promise of a better life in Karelia, Russia—as they make their way in Sudbury’s rough Donovan neighbourhood, with friends old and new.

​

~Marion Agnew, author of Making Up the Gods

​