His Whole Life - Hardcover

Hay, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1681444828 ISBN 13: 9781681444826

Publisher: MacLehose Press, 2015

Synopsis

Starting with something as simple as a boy who wants a dog, award-winning novelist Elizabeth Hay's His Whole Life transports readers to an emotionally rich landscape populated by unforgettable characters, yet overshadowed by a sense of loss.
At the outset, ten-year-old Jim and his Canadian mother and American father are on a journey from New York City to a beautiful lake in eastern Ontario during the last hot days of August. Over the next few pivotal years of Jim's youth, the novel moves from city to country, summer to winter, well-being to illness, as it charts the deepening bond between mother and son, even as their small family starts to fall to pieces.
Set in the mid-1990s, when Quebec was on the verge of seceding from Canada, this captivating novel is an unconventional coming-of-age story that draws readers in with its warmth, wisdom, its vivid sense of place, its searching honesty, and nuanced portrait of the lives of a family and those closest to it.
Writing at the height of her powers, the award-winning Elizabeth Hay explores the mystery of how family members can wound each other so deeply, and remember those hurts in such detail, yet find surprising ways to make room for love, and even forgiveness.

About this title

About the Author:

Elizabeth Hay is the bestselling, award-winning author of Late Nights on Air, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her other works include A Student of Weather (finalist for the Giller Prize and the Ottawa Book Award), Garbo Laughs (winner of the Ottawa Book Award and a finalist for the Governor General's Award), and Small Change (stories). In 2002, she received the prestigious Marian Engel Award. Elizabeth Hay lives and writes in Ottawa.

Review:

- "Hay creates enormous spaces with few words, and makes the reader party to the journey, listening, marvelling..." "Globe and Mail"
- "[She has an] evocative grace that brings to mind Annie Proulx." "Washington Post"
- "Hay has a delightful, deadpan wit, the kind that sneaks up on you." "New York Times"
- "Hay is a master of characterization. In their fallibility, their moral struggles and their conflicted desires, [her] characters ... ring utterly true."" Toronto Star"
- "Hay is capable of sending palpable chills down the reader's spine...." "Quill & Quire"
- "A master storyteller..." "Winnipeg Free Press"

"Hay creates enormous spaces with few words, and makes the reader party to the journey, listening, marvelling..." "Globe and Mail"
"[She has an] evocative grace that brings to mind Annie Proulx." "Washington Post"
"Hay has a delightful, deadpan wit, the kind that sneaks up on you." "New York Times"
"Hay is a master of characterization. In their fallibility, their moral struggles and their conflicted desires, [her] characters ... ring utterly true."" Toronto Star"
"Hay is capable of sending palpable chills down the reader's spine...." "Quill & Quire"
"A master storyteller..." "Winnipeg Free Press""

About this edition

• Publisher: MacLehose Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1681444828
• ISBN 13: 9781681444826
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308