The Manse Calvo. This item is unavailable.The Manse Calvo

Halifax, Nova Scotia: In a span of less than two years, Walek Szeyk, a second-generation Polish immigrant, loses his parents to a tragic accident, tries and fails to make something of himself at university, and through a conflation of financial ignorance and unmitigated grief loses his home. But when, on Fool’s Day 1941, he accepts a position as “useful man” at the Manse Calvo, Walek begins his life anew—a life that will intersect with that of the hotel’s heiress, herself the victim of a terrible loss.

Actual historical incidents—including the Halifax Explosion of 1917, Winston Churchill’s surprise landing at Halifax Harbour, and the VE Day Riots that nearly destroyed much of the city of Halifax—lend intense narrative power to this deceptively quiet story of the mysteries of despair and hope that lie in finding true connection with another human heart.