Crimes Against My Brother - Hardcover

Richards, David Adams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385671164 ISBN 13: 9780385671163

Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2014

Synopsis

A brilliant, heartbreaking novel from a Canadian icon that tackles the theme of debt, and what we owe each other, through three unforgettable characters. This is Richards' best and most complex work since his Giller-winning Mercy Among the Children, and a fitting companion to that novel.
     Howard, Evan and Ian are inseparable as boys--so much so that one night, abandoned in the forest by the careless adults around them, and raging against society and the uncaring gods others worship, they seal their undying brotherhood with a blood bond. But soon after, a horrific accident scars each of them in a different way, testing their bonds and leaving each with a debt to be paid. As adults, seeking to rise above debt and advance in life, each man decides upon a very different path--but over time, all three discover they are tied to each other in intricately tangled, sometimes violent, and surprising ways that none of them has been wise enough to foresee.
     In Crimes Against My Brother, literary legend David Adams Richards is at his finest, reprising some of his most complex and beloved characters (such as Sydney Henderson from Mercy Among the Children), introducing unforgettable new ones (such as the beautiful but fatally foolish Annette Brideau; and the wily, charming, money-hungry manipulator Lonnie Sullivan), and weaving a tale of such force, gravitas, complexity, universality, and compassionate understanding that he reaffirms his status as a master storyteller who has, book by book, used his rare genius to create an entire, teeming universe alongside a river in a small northern part of the world.

About this title

About the Author:

DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS is the author of numerous acclaimed and prize-winning novels, including Incidents in The Life of Markus Paul, which was published to rave reviews; The Lost Highway, which was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2008; The Friends of Meager Fortune, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book; and Mercy Among the Children, which won the 2000 Giller Prize and was a finalist for the GG and the Trillium Award. He is also the author of the celebrated Miramichi Trilogy: Nights Below Station Street, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award; Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace, winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award; and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down. The author lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Review:

“Crimes Against My Brother takes us through a long series of petty betrayals, crushing heartbreaks, loneliness and death. . . . David Adams Richards has again proven his mastery.”
—National Post

“Richards weaves a complex, heartbreaking tale. . . . New readers will find it a powerful introduction to his work.”
—Winnipeg Free Press 
 
"Tragedy and cruelty are rife in the fictional universe of David Adams Richards, one of Canada’s most prolific and gifted writers. Perhaps that’s why he begins his remarkable new novel with an admonition to the reader: “[T]ake heart and know that no betrayal is so self-infatuated, self-serving or brutal it cannot, in the end, be overcome.”. . . Yes, gird yourself, but do take heart. For Richards’ true interest is not in the terrible things we all do, but rather the ways in which we struggle to live with the consequences. . . . Crimes Against My Brother is grandly ambitious and beautifully written . . . an astute, compelling and compassionate exploration of the human spirit.”
—Toronto Star

“Over his long career, David Adams Richards has carved out a unique body of work, in the process developing a form of literary expressionism that illuminates the moral depths—and depravity—of several communities along New Brunswick’s Miramichi River. . . . Like Dostoevsky, Richards reveals his characters through how they talk—to each other, to themselves, and to whatever higher power rules their troubled lives. . . . No conscience is left untested, but Richards also bestows tenderness and compassion on the troubled blood brothers. It makes for compelling reading.”
—Quill & Quire

“It’s no stretch to say that David Adams Richards is the Feodor Dostoyevsky of Canadian fiction, a comparison that honours both the moral stance of his writing and its distance from the literary mores of Toronto and Vancouver. . . . [in Crimes Against My Brother], his writing remains brutally stark and disturbingly effective.”
—Georgia Straight

“Reading Richards' latest novel, Crimes Against My Brother, is like being at a train crossing in a downpour late at night and witnessing a locomotive barreling down on a car stalled on the tracks. . . . As rich as his novels are in terms of the specifics of time and the particulars of place, his themes are timeless and universal because they expose humanity at its most elemental.”
—The Record


Praise for David Adams Richards:

"[Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul] is brilliantly conceived, and flawlessly executed. This is Richards at the height of his powers, which is very high indeed. The word masterpiece is not too strong." --National Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday Canada
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0385671164
• ISBN 13: 9780385671163
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416