Soon potable water will be a more precious commodity than oil or gold, and the single greatest source of fresh water on the planet is The Great Lakes. Few of us devote much thought to these priceless assets, or of the men and women who labour upon them.

Sheree-Lee Olson, in her wonderful yarn Sailor Girl provides us with an education and a compelling entertainment in that setting. The benign lakes that irrigate the crops and slake the thirst of half a continent are also the force that crushed the Edmund Fitzgerald and a thousand ships before it -- implacable, indifferent to the small concerns of the puny creatures who venture upon them.

Olson's protagonist, Kate, belying her contemporary suburban origins and current career as an art student, is equal to the challenge of life aboard the lakers. She swears like a sailor, drinks too much, and chooses grossly inappropriate lovers, but she is an artist of sensitivity and skill and shows compassion and love when it is merited. Her adventures on the lakes culminate in an unanticipated and shocking climax.

This is a novel which lingers in the mind long after one reads the last page.

`A powerful debut that depicts the commotion and raw intensity of youth, and -- without ever romanticizing -- captures the romance of the sweetwater seas, those ``Great Lakes like giant footprints climbing to the centre of the continent''. Hardly a page passes without a fresh image or metaphor, a striking phrase or insight -- and insight above all, because this is an honest novel. And one to savour.'
    -- Steven Heighton, author of The Shadow Boxer

`Olson understands the appeal of tough sex and wide open water. She's got a great ear, too. Here is a book about a girl rebel written in prose that cuts to the quick.'
    -- Katherine Govier, author of Three Views of Crystal Water