The Double Hook

Widely considered one of Canada's first postmodern novels, marking the start of contemporary writing in the country, The Double Hook is now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.

     In spare, allusive prose, Sheila Watson charts the destiny of a small, tightly knit community nestled in the BC Interior. Here, among the hills of Cariboo country, men and women are caught upon the double hook of existence, unaware that the flight from danger and the search for glory are both part of the same journey. In Watson's compelling novel, cruelty and kindness, betrayal and faith shape a pattern of enduring significance.

SHEILA WATSON was born in New Westminster, B.C., in 1909. She took her B.A. and M.A. from the University of British Columbia, and then taught in elementary and high schools on the B.C. mainland and on Vancouver Island. In 1961, at the University of Alberta, she was a founder and editor of White Pelican, an avant-garde journal of literature and the visual arts. The Double Hook was her first novel.