Corinne Hoebers

After twenty-five years of adventures in Toronto and Calgary and a forty-year career in the travel industry, Corinne felt the pull to return to Nova Scotia, where she grew up. As a direct descendant of one of the first 1753 settlers of Lunenburg, her passion for history moved her to write her first self-published novel, Call of a Distant Shore, which won the Silver Medal for Canada East, Best Fiction 2009, from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Soon after, she began a comprehensive journey that led her to write Tethered Spirits.

Corinne loves the mysterious, mystical, and diverse world we live in and believes that just because we cannot see it does not mean it does not exist—it simply has not been discovered yet. She is an anomaly who does not own a microwave, dishwasher, or cellphone. Her life encompasses lively games with her bridge friends; her love of gardening where things grow, buzz, and crawl, with a visit most mornings from her helper, the neighbour cat; practising Tai Chi; and hiking with her husband through hemlock forests and unspoiled nature trails in out-of-the-way places.

A member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, Corinne lives in the Annapolis Valley with her Dutch husband and a British Blue cat named Toby who is happiest when he is fed, loved, and has a clean litter box and a warm lap. Corinne and her husband have four grandchildren.

Corinne's Book

Tethered Spirits

Against the violent backdrop of the French and Indian (Seven Years) War, two German siblings come to learn about and understand the Mi'kmaq. Christian, now named Bear Cub, lives with the ancient People and develops a deep bond with his chosen brother, Eagle Feather, while his new family’s way of life is increasingly threatened. On the outskirts of Lunenburg, Hanna, his younger sister, befriends a Mi’kmaw Elder and questions her papa’s ownership of the land they are settling.

Christian immerses himself in the Mi’kmaw language and the ways of the land, prepared to defend the People alongside Eagle Feather. Christian’s father and older sister, Elisabeth, refuse to accept his new way of life; nor will they recognize the humanity of their perceived enemy.

Christian is caught between two diverse families and cultures—the one to which he was born and to whom he feels obligated, and the one he has grown to love and respect. Settlers and Mi'kmaq alike struggle on land that is the ancestral home to one and promised to the other, a struggle that resonates to this day.

Tethered Spirits is coming out on October 18th, 2025.

What Readers Are Saying

"As moving and profound as the people at the core of her story, Corinne Hoebers's Tethered Spirits brings to vivid life the dual histories of Nova Scotia in the mid-1700s: that of the Mi'kmaq who were here since time immemorial and that of the new arrivals, especially German settlers attracted by land grants and failing to question whose land was being granted. Hoebers sensitively and realistically portrays women and men from both of those intersecting histories and the violent brutality of ensuing conflicts. She weaves a complicated cast of three-dimensional characters, including Europeans who embraced the Mi'kmaq and their teachings and in the rarest cases resisted and struggled against European encroachment and violence. The result is an engaging work of historical fiction, engrossing and enlightening."

– Chris Benjamin, author of Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School

"Tethered Spirits is a deeply moving novel set in eighteenth-century Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia), tracing the story of Bear Cub, a young German settler who is taken in by a Mi’kmaw family and gradually comes to see their land, language, and ways as his own. As someone who values stories of reconciliation and belonging, I found Bear Cub’s inner struggle between two identities—colonial and Indigenous—both heartbreaking and profoundly resonant. The novel doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities of displacement, violence, and cultural loss, but it also celebrates kinship, resilience, and the enduring wisdom of the land and its First Peoples. Tethered Spirits is not just an historical account—it’s a spiritual journey that lingers long after the final page."

– Honourable Leah Martin, member of Millbrook First Nation, Minister of L’nu Affairs for the Province of Nova Scotia

“It’s fiction, but it still teaches. We need more books like this."

– Matthew Connolly, Speaking Wolf of the Qalipu Band in Corner Brook, NL

“The most important work of historical fiction is to bring to life the parts of our history that are not often taught or told. In imagining the lives of and connections between German settlers and Mi'kmaq people in eighteenth-century Nova Scotia, Tethered Spirits vividly illuminates this little-known aspect of Atlantic Canadian history and offers a powerful and necessary reminder of whose land we live on. Hoebers's deep knowledge of and care for this history is evident on every page."

– Trudy Morgan Cole, author of The Cupids Trilogy

Corinne Hoebers

Corinne's Book

Tethered Spirits

What Readers Are Saying

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