About this item
The epic tale of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of on man determined to resist its extinction. The scarcely populated town on Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline finally reaches a head when the mainland government offers each islander a generous resettlement package- the sole stipulation being that everyone must leave. Fierce and enigmatic Moses Sweetland, whose inspectors founded the village, is the only one to refuse. As he watches his neighbors abandon the island, he recalls the towns rugged history and it eccentric cast of characters. Evoking The Shipping News, Michael Crummey-one of Canadas finest novelists-conjures up the mythical, sublime world of Sweetlands past amid a stormbattered landscape haunted by local lore.
About the Author
Born in Buchans, Newfoundland, Crummey grew up there and in Wabush, Labrador, where he moved with his family in the late 1970s. He went to university with no idea what to do with his life and, to make matters worse, started writing poems in his first year. Just before graduating with a BA in English he won the Gregory Power Poetry Award. First prize was three hundred dollars (big bucks back in 1987) and it gave him the mistaken impression there was money to be made in poetry. He published a slender collection of poems called Arguments with Gravity in 1996, followed two years later by Hard Light. 1998 also saw the publication of a collection of short stories, Flesh and Blood, and Crummey's nomination for the Journey Prize. Crummey's debut novel, River Thieves (2001) was a Canadian bestseller, winning the Thomas Head Raddall Award and the Winterset Award for Excellence in Newfoundland Writing. It was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the IMPAC Award. His second novel, The Wreckage (2005) , was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award. Galore was published in Canada in 2009. A national bestseller, it was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean) , the Canadian Authors' Association Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award for fiction. He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland with his wife and three step-kids.
