Samantha

This was not my idea. Samantha chased after me to do it, so if inflicting myself on you is a cause of any pain you know who to blame.

Samantha also wanted a list of Canadian authors and books which I delighted in during my two decades of running a bookstore at the end of the world.

This list is in no discernable order.

Barbara Gowdy

Ed Riche

David McFarlane’s The Danger Tree was published in the US as Come From Away though Lord knows why. It received a long glowing review in the New Yorker upon its appearance but I was lucky enough to get a proof well in advance of publication.

The story is based on the author’s mother’s family, the Goodyears, latterly of Grand Falls, and effectively parallels the death of three of her six brothers in the Great War with the demise of Newfoundland as a country and its decent into provincedom. By turns poignant and funny, evocative and telling, a wonderful yarn well told.

Timothy Findley

Mordecai Richler

Bill Gaston

Tall Lives was my first introduction to New Brunswick based Gaston, and while years later its specifics fade from memory I do recall it being a rollicking adventure.