The Tinsmith

During the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, Anson Baird, a surgeon for the Union Army, is on the front line tending to the wounded. As the number of casualties rises, a mysterious soldier named John comes to Anson's aid. Deeply affected by the man's selfless actions, Anson soon realizes that John is no ordinary soldier, and that he harbors a dangerous secret. In the bizarre aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, this secret forges an intense bond between the two men.

Twenty years later on the other side of the continent, Anson discovers his old comrade-in-arms is mysteriously absent, an apparent victim of the questionable business ethics of the pioneer salmon canners. Haunted by the violence of his past, and disillusioned with his present, Anson is compelled to discover the fate of his missing friend, a fate inextricably linked to his own.

"Altogether, a story of impressive scope, and bristling with action." —Jack Matthews, author of The Gambler's Nephew

Tim Bowling is the author of ten collections of poetry, four novels, and two works of non-fiction. His most recent books are the poetry collections Tenderman and The Annotated Bee & Me, and the non-fiction titles In the Suicide s Library: A Book Lover s Journey and The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture. A native of the West Coast who now lives in Edmonton, Tim has received many honours for his writing, including a Canadian Authors Association Award, two Governor General s Award nominations, a fellowship for his entire body of work in prose and poetry from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and four Alberta Book Awards.