Rare Birds

Dave Purcell is ready to call it quits on his marriage and his restaurant, The Auk.  His wife has left for a job at a "right leaning" Washington, D.C. think tank and the restaurant, like the ill-fated bird for which it was named, has never really taken off.

Disheartened and desperate, Dave endeavors to consume the rare delights of his well-stocked wine cellar and larder before they are repossessed by the bank.

All seems lost until Dave's neighbor, Alphonse Murphy, proposes a mad, yet ingenious scheme to save The Auk.  Soon, the restaurant is crawling with well-heeled gastronomes, vain celebrities and bellicose politicos.

However, Phonse Murphy has been up to some other tricks that have caught the attention of sinister forces, and because of Dave's involvement, it looks like the restaurant may well go the way of...the auk.

A laugh-out-loud novel by one of Canada's most gifted young writers, Rare Birds is a rare literary debut.

A noted writer for the stage, screen and radio, Edward Riche wrote the feature film Secret Nation and the stage plays Possible Maps and List of Lights. Other projects include CBC Radio’s “The Great Eastern” and scripts for the television comedy “Made in Canada,” as well as the screenplay for Rare Birds. Edward Riche lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Rare Birds is his first novel.