Items related to The Island Walkers
Synopsis
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
A Finalist for the 2003 Giller Prize
Across a bend of Ontario's Attawan River lies the Island, where, for generations, the Walkers have lived among other mill workers. But in the summer of 1965, with the threat of mill closures looming, the Walkers grapple with their personal crises, just as the rest of the town fights to protect its way of life.
Superbly crafted and deeply moving, this book is at once a love letter to a place, a gripping family saga, and testimony to the emergence of an important new novelist.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
A native of Paris, Ontario, John Bemrose lives in Toronto and writes for Maclean's magazine.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
rom The Island Walkers:
She sat in the first desk of the window row: a girl in a pale green sleeveless dress, her slender right arm lying on the desktop, motionless except for a small stroking movement of her fingers on the wood. As Joe flung his gym bag under his seat, the teacher offered a bland hello and the girl turned to glance at him. The shock hit him before he knew what the shock was for, as if his body had recognized her before he did, recognized the face from the bridge, the details he had pretty much forgotten.
He opened his book and stared into it, seeing nothing. He might have been an actor pretending to read while he waited to say his next lines. He was aware of her dress cut in a square at the back, exposing smooth, tanned skin, of the silver bangle she toyed with at her wrist. Her light voice had a trace of something low in it, an impure note that thrilled and obscurely frightened him. He listened to her conversation with a dry mouth, half-resenting her arrival: he had been happy with his life.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMcClelland & Stewart
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0719567068
- ISBN 13 9780719567063
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages448
- Rating
Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
The Island Walkers
Seller: Bookbot, Prague, Czech Republic
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: USED_FINE. For generations, the Walkers have lived in the Island, a small, working class mill-town beside Ontario's Attawan River. But in the summer of 1965 their peace is shattered. When a union organiser comes to town, Alf Walker is forced to choose between loyalty to his friends and advancement up the company ranks. His decision threatens to overwhelm not only his own life, but also his family. Through the course of the book, we come to know the Walkers intimately - Alf, as he attempts to keep ahead of these turbulent events; his son Joe, whose world is overturned by the passion and uncertainty of young love; and his wife Margaret, who must reconcile her English upbringing with the world in which she finds herself. The Island Walkers is a deeply moving novel of a family struggling to make its way through a changing world. Written with remarkable understanding and perception, it reveals a writer of rare vision and accomplishment. Seller Inventory # 8725bef1-c17a-4ee7-b354-3926e2658b9b
Quantity: 1 available