George & Rue

By all accounts, the bludgeoning murder in 1949 of a taxi driverby brothers George and Rufus Hamilton was a "slug-ugly" crime. Georgeand Rue were hanged for it. Repelled and intrigued by his ancestral cousins’deeds, George Elliott Clarke uncovered a story of violence, poverty and shame―astory that led first to the Governor General’s Award–winning ExecutionPoems and culminated in Clarke’s brilliant and darkly comic debut novel.

Named an editor’s choice by The Bookseller inthe UK, George & Rue is a book about death that brims with fiercevitality and the sensual, rhythmic beauty that so often defines Clarke’swriting.

George Elliott Clarke’s books include George & Rue, winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; Execution Poems, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry; and Whylah Falls, winner of the Archibald Lampman Award for poetry and chosen for CBC’s inaugural Canada Reads competition. In 2008, he was appointed to the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer. He was recently the Poet Laureate of Toronto, from 2012 to 2015, and currently teaches at the University of Toronto.