The Dominion of Wyley McFadden: A Novel - Rilegato

Gardiner, Scott; Badami, Anita Rau

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 067931041X ISBN 13: 9780679310419

Casa editrice: Random House of Canada Ltd, 2000

Riassunto

An eccentric ex-fertility doctor's quest to redress geo-zoological discrimination in Canada takes an unexpected twist when he meets up with a mysterious hitchhiker.

After months of painstaking preparation, Wyley McFadden is finally ready to carry out an outlandish scheme. In what looks remarkably like an ordinary camper van, McFadden is transporting a secret cargo -- one he's been accumulating for the better part of a year -- from Toronto to Alberta. But just past the town of Wawa, off the eastern flank of Lake Superior, in the midst of miles and miles of aspen and conifer, he spots a girl in a tennis outfit on the side of the road. Hopping from one foot to the other, bending in oddly rhythmic intervals and waving her arms, she appears to be performing some exotic dance. But as McFadden gets closer, he realizes she is being eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies, and he slows to pick her up.

Fearful, starving and exhausted, the girl doesn't seem to know where she's headed and refuses to explain how she came to be hitchhiking in the middle of the bush. She wards off McFadden's questions by asking him about his own past. But once McFadden has revealed his secrets, including the purpose of his peculiar mission, the girl can no longer avoid telling him her own shocking and terrifying story.

By turns playful and disturbing, The Dominion of Wyley McFadden is a daring first novel full of surprises.

Su questo libro

Recensione

"Gardiner, a first-time Toronto novelist, writes of the road with confidence and clarity.  His wry descriptions of motels, diners, truckstops and the eccentrics who inhabit them evoke Steinbeck in his hard-travelling days" - Globe and Mail

"An interesting premise to be sure - and, I might add, a rich, dark and highly accomplished debut" - Ottawa Citizen

"For the fictional trip, Gardiner (like many first time novelists) brings together many desperate subjects, including the legal entrapment of rats (Gardiner took a trapping course in Toronto, but did not trap), the human fertility industry (which he researched and calls a nightmare, completely unregulated, unlike most aspects of medicine'), sexual victims, what it is to be Canadian, Quebec separatism and Alberta's idiosyncratic politics." - Toronto Star

L'autore

Scott Gardiner's writing has appeared in several publications, including Toronto Life, Canadian Geographic, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. He has worked as a deckhand on the Great Lake freighters, a wall-plasterer in Spain, a soap salesman in Germany, a fact-checker at Maclean's and an education consultant in Labrador. He lives in Toronto.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Random House of Canada Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2000
• ISBN 10: 067931041X
• ISBN 13: 9780679310419
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 337