Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Other Press, 2011.
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, Caribbean & Canada and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award; Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Book Award, and the Winterset Award When a whale beaches itself on the shore of the remote coastal town of Paradise Deep, the last thing any of the townspeople expect to find inside it is a man, silent and reeking of fish, but remarkably alive. The discovery of this mysterious person, soon christened Judah, sets the town scrambling for answers as its most prominent citizens weigh in on whether he is man or beast, blessing or curse, miracle or demon. Though Judah is a shocking addition, the town of Paradise Deep is already full of unusual characters. King-me Sellers, self-appointed patriarch, has it in for an inscrutable woman known only as Devine's Widow, with whom he has a decades-old feud. Her granddaughter, Mary Tryphena, is just a child when Judah washes ashore, but finds herself tied to him all her life in ways she never expects. Galore is the story of the saga that develops between these families, full of bitterness and love, spanning two centuries. With Paradise Deep, award-winning novelist Michael Crummey imagines a realm where the line between the everyday and the otherworldly is impossible to discern. Sprawling and intimate, stark and fantastical, Galore is a novel about the power of stories to shape and sustain us..… (more)
Media reviews
Newfoundland author Crummey’s award-winning third novel, published in Canada in 2009, affirms that our lives are always astonishing. It’s been justly compared to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. It also calls to mind Graham Swift’s Waterland and Alexis Wright’s
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Carpentaria, as well as William Faulkner’s epic Compson novels, and will appeal to readers who enjoyed those works. Show Less
Publishers Weekly
Crummey lovingly carves out the privation and inner intricacies that mark his characters' lives with folkloric embellishments and the precision of the finest scrimshaw.
Resource Links
An intriguing read.
User reviews
LibraryThing member brenzi
I don’t know what just happened to me. I was minding my own business, my February reads already planned and stacked up on a shelf, when suddenly I was overcome by the desire for a spontaneous read, something that has been sitting on my shelves for a long time, something I haven’t given a second
A whale beaches itself on the shores of the isolated town of Paradise Deep, just in time for the famished residents to finally feel hope of being sated. As they hack away at the carcass they are shocked to find a man inside, alive, mute and reeking of fish. They soon name him Judah (although he calls himself God’s nephew) and he is absorbed into a community that is already full to over-flowing with odd, eccentric, strangely endearing characters. And as we learn their stories, and watch those complex stories fold in on themselves and into the next generation, it’s the continuing saga of this fantastical community that tears at the sensibilities which the author renders with grace and aplomb. These hardscrabble characters fight each other, the land, the sea and the elements. The harsh New Foundland weather with its extremes in temperature and precipitation and the rolling sea provide tremendous obstacles to any shred of happiness these characters might grasp. Between poor fish hauls and total or partial crop failure, life in Paradise Deep makes it seem hardly like, er, paradise. But Judah, the albino found within the beached whale, seems to be some kind of talisman for the people. Their luck seems to change. The fish are plentiful and they’re harvesting bumper crops.
If you’re looking for intricate plotting, you’re looking at the wrong book. This book is about deeply flawed and complex characters and Crummey is a genius in his skill at character portrayal and, thereby, telling the fascinating tales that make up the narrative. King-me Sellers, the self-proclaimed patriarch is at constant odds with the enigmatic Devine’s Widow, who some claim is a witch and who practices some unexplainable medical procedures. They dominate their respective families who are at war with each other throughout the course of the book. There’s a jealous husband who dies and yet comes crashing through the ceiling and becomes a permanent fixture in the frightened community; a priest who doesn’t exactly play by the rules:
”’You’d be a half-decent priest if you gave up the drinking and whoring,’ Devine’s Widow told him. ‘Half-decent,’ he said, ‘wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice.’ He was mean and mercurial and abrupt, the sort of man you could imagine slipping through an outhouse hole when circumstances required it. He was fond of quoting the most outrageous or scandalous confessions from his recent travels, he named names and locations, adulteries and sexual proclivities and blasphemies. He had no sense of shame and it was this quality that marked him as a man of God in the eyes of his parishioners.” (Page 18)
And when a new doctor finally comes ashore and the patients line up he treats a beautiful young woman in just the way she asks to be treated. She may only have two teeth that need to be extracted but he acquiesces when she asks that he pull them all, ‘they’re only going to cause her grief later on and she’ll as like be somewhere she got no one to pull them.”
As one generation dies off and we meet up with the next generation we find the years are flying by and, coincidentally, the pages seem to be turning themselves until we come to the end and find we’re right back where we started. But oh my, what a time we had getting there. Very highly recommended.
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thought to since I placed it on my shelf, something that another member of our 75 group posted about on three different threads. Hello Galore! Nice to meet you. And just like that I was sucked into a fantastical world like none I’ve been in before. Part fable, part myth, part old fashioned family saga, an epic novel like no other, a charming romp through two centuries on the New Foundland coast, I could hardly stand coming up for air as I consumed the narrative in hungry gulps.A whale beaches itself on the shores of the isolated town of Paradise Deep, just in time for the famished residents to finally feel hope of being sated. As they hack away at the carcass they are shocked to find a man inside, alive, mute and reeking of fish. They soon name him Judah (although he calls himself God’s nephew) and he is absorbed into a community that is already full to over-flowing with odd, eccentric, strangely endearing characters. And as we learn their stories, and watch those complex stories fold in on themselves and into the next generation, it’s the continuing saga of this fantastical community that tears at the sensibilities which the author renders with grace and aplomb. These hardscrabble characters fight each other, the land, the sea and the elements. The harsh New Foundland weather with its extremes in temperature and precipitation and the rolling sea provide tremendous obstacles to any shred of happiness these characters might grasp. Between poor fish hauls and total or partial crop failure, life in Paradise Deep makes it seem hardly like, er, paradise. But Judah, the albino found within the beached whale, seems to be some kind of talisman for the people. Their luck seems to change. The fish are plentiful and they’re harvesting bumper crops.
If you’re looking for intricate plotting, you’re looking at the wrong book. This book is about deeply flawed and complex characters and Crummey is a genius in his skill at character portrayal and, thereby, telling the fascinating tales that make up the narrative. King-me Sellers, the self-proclaimed patriarch is at constant odds with the enigmatic Devine’s Widow, who some claim is a witch and who practices some unexplainable medical procedures. They dominate their respective families who are at war with each other throughout the course of the book. There’s a jealous husband who dies and yet comes crashing through the ceiling and becomes a permanent fixture in the frightened community; a priest who doesn’t exactly play by the rules:
”’You’d be a half-decent priest if you gave up the drinking and whoring,’ Devine’s Widow told him. ‘Half-decent,’ he said, ‘wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice.’ He was mean and mercurial and abrupt, the sort of man you could imagine slipping through an outhouse hole when circumstances required it. He was fond of quoting the most outrageous or scandalous confessions from his recent travels, he named names and locations, adulteries and sexual proclivities and blasphemies. He had no sense of shame and it was this quality that marked him as a man of God in the eyes of his parishioners.” (Page 18)
And when a new doctor finally comes ashore and the patients line up he treats a beautiful young woman in just the way she asks to be treated. She may only have two teeth that need to be extracted but he acquiesces when she asks that he pull them all, ‘they’re only going to cause her grief later on and she’ll as like be somewhere she got no one to pull them.”
As one generation dies off and we meet up with the next generation we find the years are flying by and, coincidentally, the pages seem to be turning themselves until we come to the end and find we’re right back where we started. But oh my, what a time we had getting there. Very highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member mckait
Newfoundland always has a bit of a magical ring to me. When I had the opportunity to read
this for the Vine program, I was intrigued. It takes place in Newfoundland,in a place called
Paradise Deep. It opens with a beached whale being carved into for oil and food by the starving
inhabitants of this
As they all worked for their share, and arugued with the man who said he owned that part
of beach, A woman, known as Devine's Widow, cuts into the belly of the poor whale, and out
came a man. He was an albino. He is a central character to the story, and yet, nary a
word passes his lips. Despite this, a more extraordinary man is seldom found.
The story leads us down through the generations of the family of Devine family. Suffice to say
that few men of the family manage to make much of a name for themselves, and certainly no one
is quite like the albino, who came to be known as Judah. The women of the family are another
story altogether. They are a force to be reckoned with, each and every one.
Although we watch as some leave the community for other ports, including the United States. Eventually,
some of the men head for Europe. We follow them through good times and bad. We find characters to love
and other that we can barely tolerate, just as we would in any town. I suspect that some of us would not
agree on which was which.
An ongoing theme is poverty, and want. Each generation will face it and tragedies of their own. I
was sorry to see the story end, and would not have minded seeing it continue to the present. I felt
that as much as the story offered, I would gladly have accepted more.
Recommended for anyone who likes a good yarn, a story about life on the sea, or a family saga.
this for the Vine program, I was intrigued. It takes place in Newfoundland,in a place called
Paradise Deep. It opens with a beached whale being carved into for oil and food by the starving
inhabitants of this
Show More
fishing community.As they all worked for their share, and arugued with the man who said he owned that part
of beach, A woman, known as Devine's Widow, cuts into the belly of the poor whale, and out
came a man. He was an albino. He is a central character to the story, and yet, nary a
word passes his lips. Despite this, a more extraordinary man is seldom found.
The story leads us down through the generations of the family of Devine family. Suffice to say
that few men of the family manage to make much of a name for themselves, and certainly no one
is quite like the albino, who came to be known as Judah. The women of the family are another
story altogether. They are a force to be reckoned with, each and every one.
Although we watch as some leave the community for other ports, including the United States. Eventually,
some of the men head for Europe. We follow them through good times and bad. We find characters to love
and other that we can barely tolerate, just as we would in any town. I suspect that some of us would not
agree on which was which.
An ongoing theme is poverty, and want. Each generation will face it and tragedies of their own. I
was sorry to see the story end, and would not have minded seeing it continue to the present. I felt
that as much as the story offered, I would gladly have accepted more.
Recommended for anyone who likes a good yarn, a story about life on the sea, or a family saga.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lit_chick
“He ended his time on the shore in a makeshift asylum cell, shut away with the profligate stink of fish that clung to him all his days. The Great White. St. Jude of the Lost Cause. Sea Orphan …” (Ch 1)
So begins Galore, set in the Newfoundland outport, Paradise Deep. The villagers are gathered
Paradise Deep, as observed by one of the rare newcomers to the village, is something of a "medieval world," "half fairy tale," its inhabitants "quietly lunatic." The outport is home to two predominant families – the Devines and the Sellers – from which most of its population has sprung. Devine’s Widow, an elderly crone thought by many to be a witch, is the matriarch of the first. Her nemesis is the patriarch of the second: King-me Sellers, magistrate, merchant, and tyrant. Between the two families plays out the mother of all grudges and feuds! Discord is played out by other forces, too, both religious and political: the Catholic and Anglican churches are rocked by a vitriolic (and sometimes humourous) split; and the novel’s historical framework introduces bitter union/merchant politics as fishermen in the community, suffering from Sellers’ stranglehold on fish prices and trade, are recruited to unionize. As the title promises, other abundances are plenty in Paradise Deep: feast, famine, poverty, riches (thought certainly not in equal measure), heartbreak, loss, and deep and abiding love. Father Phelan, one of the novel’s many memorable hardscrabble characters, tends often to the abundances of philandering and alcoholism:
“’You’d be a half-decent priest if you gave up the drinking and whoring,’ she told him. – ‘Half-decent, he said, wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice.’ He was mean and mercurial and abrupt, the sort of man you could imagine slipping through an outhouse hole when circumstances required it. He was fond of quoting the most outrageous or scandalous confessions from his recent travels, he named names and locations, adulteries and sexual proclivities and blasphemies. He had no sense of shame and it was this quality that marked him as a man of God in the eyes of his parishioners.” (Ch 1)
Michael Crummey is a new experience for me, and what a treasure! His writing is superb – his mastery of Newfoundland’s vernacular seemingly effortless. I’ve long been enamoured of Canada’s East coast writers – our Atlantic storytellers have a way with a yarn which is exactly my cuppa. And Crummey has certainly earned a place of honour among them with Galore. I’ll be looking for more of his work. Very highly recommended.
“– You’re giving up the drink, Father? – I’d sooner be dead.” (Ch 4)
So begins Galore, set in the Newfoundland outport, Paradise Deep. The villagers are gathered
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by the sea, where a whale has beached itself. Borne of the enormous mammal is Judah, a “sea orphan” with skin as white as snow, and the fiercest stench, a “faux-albino of indeterminate age." (Ch 5) The day is a special one, the day of the Feast of St Mark – the novel will end on the same day, many generations and roughly two centuries later. In between, Crummey delights with a fabulous tale, filled with a plethora of rough-and-tumble oddball characters and rich in Newfoundland folklore.Paradise Deep, as observed by one of the rare newcomers to the village, is something of a "medieval world," "half fairy tale," its inhabitants "quietly lunatic." The outport is home to two predominant families – the Devines and the Sellers – from which most of its population has sprung. Devine’s Widow, an elderly crone thought by many to be a witch, is the matriarch of the first. Her nemesis is the patriarch of the second: King-me Sellers, magistrate, merchant, and tyrant. Between the two families plays out the mother of all grudges and feuds! Discord is played out by other forces, too, both religious and political: the Catholic and Anglican churches are rocked by a vitriolic (and sometimes humourous) split; and the novel’s historical framework introduces bitter union/merchant politics as fishermen in the community, suffering from Sellers’ stranglehold on fish prices and trade, are recruited to unionize. As the title promises, other abundances are plenty in Paradise Deep: feast, famine, poverty, riches (thought certainly not in equal measure), heartbreak, loss, and deep and abiding love. Father Phelan, one of the novel’s many memorable hardscrabble characters, tends often to the abundances of philandering and alcoholism:
“’You’d be a half-decent priest if you gave up the drinking and whoring,’ she told him. – ‘Half-decent, he said, wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice.’ He was mean and mercurial and abrupt, the sort of man you could imagine slipping through an outhouse hole when circumstances required it. He was fond of quoting the most outrageous or scandalous confessions from his recent travels, he named names and locations, adulteries and sexual proclivities and blasphemies. He had no sense of shame and it was this quality that marked him as a man of God in the eyes of his parishioners.” (Ch 1)
Michael Crummey is a new experience for me, and what a treasure! His writing is superb – his mastery of Newfoundland’s vernacular seemingly effortless. I’ve long been enamoured of Canada’s East coast writers – our Atlantic storytellers have a way with a yarn which is exactly my cuppa. And Crummey has certainly earned a place of honour among them with Galore. I’ll be looking for more of his work. Very highly recommended.
“– You’re giving up the drink, Father? – I’d sooner be dead.” (Ch 4)
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LibraryThing member Cariola
I'm glad that I didn't read any reviews of this book before I started it; if I had, I probably would never have picked it up. I'm not a fan of so-called "magical realism" and likely would never use that term to describe Michael Crummey's Galore. Yes, it has its mystical components, but they are
If you've read other reviews, you know that the novel opens with the residents of Paradise Deep gathered on shore to harvest a whale, and when they cut into its belly, a pale young man emerges, half-dead. Taken in and brought back to health by the the matriarch of the Devine family, he is named Judah, and he becomes legendary for the whiteness of his skin and hair and for the smell of decaying fish about him that can't be washed away. Judah never complains--in fact, never speaks--whether he is being accused of a crime that he did not commit, married off to the Widow Devine's granddaughter, sent out to sea with the fishing crews, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, or committed to a lunatic's cell.
But Judah is only one of the fascinating characters whose stories spin out in Galore and its series of feuds between Anglican and Catholic, rich and poor, union members and company bosses, accusers and accused, ghosts and the living, husbands and wives, and more. Crummy's eye for description and detail and his unique yet realistic characters draw the reader into the world of Paradise Deep and the dilemmas faced by its inhabitants. It is a world that I hope he will allow us to visit once again in another novel.
The character I found most intriguing was Newman, a young Connecticut doctor who signs and perennially renews a contract to serve the people of Paradise Deep. On his first day, he falls madly in love with Bride, a pregnant young woman about to be married who has come to request that all her teeth be pulled. Newman hides his passion for years, seeing Bride through a difficult childbirth and waiting well beyond her widowing to speak of his feelings. He is both an outsider and a fixture of the town as the years proceed, and his insights as both allow the reader a fuller assessment of the inhabitants.
If you are a fan of multi-generational sagas, as I am, you will enjoy meeting the Sellerses, the Devines, and their neighbors and watching the progress of their lives and families. I'm looking forward to reading more of Crummey's work!
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well woven into the traditions, history, and lore of Paradise Deep, the remote Newfoundland fishing village in which the novel is set. This is a huge multi-generational saga focused on the conflicts and convergences of two extended families, the Devines and the Sellerses. A word of advice: I listened to the book on audio, and while John Lee is one of my favorite narrators and did a wonderful job with this material, I might have enjoyed the book more had I read it in print. I found myself floundering at times to remember exactly who the characters were and how they were related, wishing that I had some kind of family tree or cast of characters to help me out. (I understand that there is such a family tree in the print version.)If you've read other reviews, you know that the novel opens with the residents of Paradise Deep gathered on shore to harvest a whale, and when they cut into its belly, a pale young man emerges, half-dead. Taken in and brought back to health by the the matriarch of the Devine family, he is named Judah, and he becomes legendary for the whiteness of his skin and hair and for the smell of decaying fish about him that can't be washed away. Judah never complains--in fact, never speaks--whether he is being accused of a crime that he did not commit, married off to the Widow Devine's granddaughter, sent out to sea with the fishing crews, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, or committed to a lunatic's cell.
But Judah is only one of the fascinating characters whose stories spin out in Galore and its series of feuds between Anglican and Catholic, rich and poor, union members and company bosses, accusers and accused, ghosts and the living, husbands and wives, and more. Crummy's eye for description and detail and his unique yet realistic characters draw the reader into the world of Paradise Deep and the dilemmas faced by its inhabitants. It is a world that I hope he will allow us to visit once again in another novel.
The character I found most intriguing was Newman, a young Connecticut doctor who signs and perennially renews a contract to serve the people of Paradise Deep. On his first day, he falls madly in love with Bride, a pregnant young woman about to be married who has come to request that all her teeth be pulled. Newman hides his passion for years, seeing Bride through a difficult childbirth and waiting well beyond her widowing to speak of his feelings. He is both an outsider and a fixture of the town as the years proceed, and his insights as both allow the reader a fuller assessment of the inhabitants.
If you are a fan of multi-generational sagas, as I am, you will enjoy meeting the Sellerses, the Devines, and their neighbors and watching the progress of their lives and families. I'm looking forward to reading more of Crummey's work!
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LibraryThing member bremmd
This was an odd book. This was a very odd book. This is the kind of book where you wish you knew the author so you could call him and say “Dude, what the ……”. There were times I really liked this book, there were times I really loved this book, and times when I wanted to chuck it across the
I’m going to start with a few of the things that made me a little crazy. There was a complete lack of quotation marks. I’m not sure what Crummey was trying to say, if anything, but it did take me a bit to get into the rhythm of not having quotes when characters spoke. Then there’s the fact that until well into the second half of this book I had no idea when it was taking place. And if it wasn’t for the family tree at the front of the book I don’t know if I would have been able to keep all the characters straight and let me tell you there were a lot of characters.
Now, the things I really liked and even loved about this book. It always kept me guessing. I had no idea where is was going and I loved being along for the ride. We follow the people of Paradise Deep and the Gut for more than 100 years. I love books where, really, the location is the star-the story. Oddly enough a Fannie Flagg book comes to mind when I think of this. Standing in the Rainbow is another book that while following members of the same family were see the progression of a town over time and how much things change but also how things stay the same. But clear warning this is nothing like Fannie Flagg. The language is rough and course like the people of the towns. Their lives are graphic and sometimes crude.Their actions are sometime shocking.
There’s such an odd (I use that word a lot about this book) beauty about this book. There were times I felt like I was in the middle of a foreign movie. Where I didn’t understand exactly what was happening but I could tell what was going on. I don’t know if that made any sense but like I said this book had me work for it. And don’t even get me started on the ending. I’ve changed my mind at least six times on what I think happened.
I had a hard time, at times, getting through this and found myself going back a few pages to try to get a grasp of what was going on and it reminded me of something. I while back when Oprah had just started her book club she had Toni Morrison on discussing her book Paradise. And Oprah had mentioned that she had to keep going back over sections to understand what was happening and Toni Morrison said in that great voice of hers (and if you haven’t heard her speak you should. I wonder if she does the reading on any of her audio books, oh-sorry, I digress) anyway she says “My dear, that’s why the call it reading.”
I’ve always loved that quote. You see I’m a gal who can enjoy an easy read. Give me a cozy mystery or a fluffy romance and I can be happy as pie. But when you really get to read, get in there and work for it, well-that’s something special. And this book was something special.
Thanks to Other Press for sending me a copy of Galore
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room while cursing it.I’m going to start with a few of the things that made me a little crazy. There was a complete lack of quotation marks. I’m not sure what Crummey was trying to say, if anything, but it did take me a bit to get into the rhythm of not having quotes when characters spoke. Then there’s the fact that until well into the second half of this book I had no idea when it was taking place. And if it wasn’t for the family tree at the front of the book I don’t know if I would have been able to keep all the characters straight and let me tell you there were a lot of characters.
Now, the things I really liked and even loved about this book. It always kept me guessing. I had no idea where is was going and I loved being along for the ride. We follow the people of Paradise Deep and the Gut for more than 100 years. I love books where, really, the location is the star-the story. Oddly enough a Fannie Flagg book comes to mind when I think of this. Standing in the Rainbow is another book that while following members of the same family were see the progression of a town over time and how much things change but also how things stay the same. But clear warning this is nothing like Fannie Flagg. The language is rough and course like the people of the towns. Their lives are graphic and sometimes crude.Their actions are sometime shocking.
There’s such an odd (I use that word a lot about this book) beauty about this book. There were times I felt like I was in the middle of a foreign movie. Where I didn’t understand exactly what was happening but I could tell what was going on. I don’t know if that made any sense but like I said this book had me work for it. And don’t even get me started on the ending. I’ve changed my mind at least six times on what I think happened.
I had a hard time, at times, getting through this and found myself going back a few pages to try to get a grasp of what was going on and it reminded me of something. I while back when Oprah had just started her book club she had Toni Morrison on discussing her book Paradise. And Oprah had mentioned that she had to keep going back over sections to understand what was happening and Toni Morrison said in that great voice of hers (and if you haven’t heard her speak you should. I wonder if she does the reading on any of her audio books, oh-sorry, I digress) anyway she says “My dear, that’s why the call it reading.”
I’ve always loved that quote. You see I’m a gal who can enjoy an easy read. Give me a cozy mystery or a fluffy romance and I can be happy as pie. But when you really get to read, get in there and work for it, well-that’s something special. And this book was something special.
Thanks to Other Press for sending me a copy of Galore
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LibraryThing member karieh
It’s not often that a book I read contains a quote that perfectly describes the book itself. But when I sat down to write the review for “Galore” by Michael Crummy, I realized that I could find no better way to describe the experience of reading this story than, “(He) felt at times he’d
The feeling I got from “Galore” was very similar to the one I had while reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. There are tales woven among complex family trees, most about love and loss and grief and joy – the most basic of human stories – but there are also magical happenings that let the reader know that the story is not truly of this world.
“Galore” begins with the story of a man born of a whale, and this character was the touchstone of the story for me. His tale was the one I was most interested in, and he was the character whose timeline I was best able to follow, but despite the drama of his arrival in the town of Paradise Deep, the story of his life seems at times as pale and mute as he.
I had a very difficult time trying to keep the characters and family trees straight, which led to the nearly month long period of time it took me to read it. No other character was as fascinating or distinctive as Judah, the mysterious man cut from the belly of a whale. At times I started to connect again to this town seemingly rooted in the long ago past, to its people so unlike those in the rest of the world. When they connected to one another, the story was at its strongest.
“They each found a salve for their separate losses in the other and as the months passed it looked as if they might escape their individual nightmares together.”
But the story seemed to shift to a different family or different time almost within the same paragraph, and I lost the connection again. The Devines, the Sellers, children, grandchildren, and cousins…all started to blur for me and the thread of the tale was gone again.
The story ends as it began, with the man who came to the town not through the usual manner of birth, and it again reinforces his mystery, though never explains it.
“He smiled as her useless little ploy, shaking his white head. His life was like something important he’d meant to tell someone and he couldn’t recall now what he intended to say or to whom.”
It was that story I was hoping to hear.
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been transported to a medieval world that was still half fairy tale.”The feeling I got from “Galore” was very similar to the one I had while reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. There are tales woven among complex family trees, most about love and loss and grief and joy – the most basic of human stories – but there are also magical happenings that let the reader know that the story is not truly of this world.
“Galore” begins with the story of a man born of a whale, and this character was the touchstone of the story for me. His tale was the one I was most interested in, and he was the character whose timeline I was best able to follow, but despite the drama of his arrival in the town of Paradise Deep, the story of his life seems at times as pale and mute as he.
I had a very difficult time trying to keep the characters and family trees straight, which led to the nearly month long period of time it took me to read it. No other character was as fascinating or distinctive as Judah, the mysterious man cut from the belly of a whale. At times I started to connect again to this town seemingly rooted in the long ago past, to its people so unlike those in the rest of the world. When they connected to one another, the story was at its strongest.
“They each found a salve for their separate losses in the other and as the months passed it looked as if they might escape their individual nightmares together.”
But the story seemed to shift to a different family or different time almost within the same paragraph, and I lost the connection again. The Devines, the Sellers, children, grandchildren, and cousins…all started to blur for me and the thread of the tale was gone again.
The story ends as it began, with the man who came to the town not through the usual manner of birth, and it again reinforces his mystery, though never explains it.
“He smiled as her useless little ploy, shaking his white head. His life was like something important he’d meant to tell someone and he couldn’t recall now what he intended to say or to whom.”
It was that story I was hoping to hear.
Show Less
LibraryThing member zibilee
In the small Newfoundland island town of Paradise Deep a strange occurrence has turned the town upside down. It seems a huge whale has beached itself on the shore, and due to the fishing town’s recent hardships, the residents soon begin to divvy up the carcass for food and fuel. But when the
This was a hard book to summarize; not because it was confusing but because there was just so much going on that it would have been impossible to even hint at all the plot permutations and narrative twists. I found that although I tried to sit down and read this one straight through, it was almost impossible to do so because of the book’s density and the abundance of genealogical information. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did. I thought there was a great use of magical realism that didn’t end up stretching into absurdity and that all the various components of the town’s saga were captivating and engaging. Though it took me awhile to rip through this one, I was very pleased with both the journey and the destination.
Part of what I loved about this book was Crummey’s ability to be playful and at times crass. It was obvious that although there was a lot of gravity in this story, the author didn’t take himself or his characters too seriously; in turn, I was rewarded with a great sense of the joviality of Paradise Deep’s residents. There were some heartbreaking moments as well, and the balance between gravity and humor was one that was well played within this tale. The more I read, the deeper I fell into the spell of the story and the more intimately I began to understand the characters and their motivations. There was a great give and take here, a seesawing between the details of the town’s growth and the characters’ interplay with one another that was mingled with just a touch of the magical realism that I so enjoy.
I think it’s a feat to manage such a sprawling novel the way that Crummey did. The book wasn’t astronomically large, but seemed to encompass so much time in a succinct and elegant way. From the moment the strange man is disgorged from the whale’s belly, Crummey is off and running with his history of Paradise Deep and his eccentric cast of characters, who are always doing something surprising and counter-intuitive. I also really enjoyed Crummey’s character creation because it was extremely layered for a book of this scope and size. Most of the characters were given a lot of development and substance, which is impressive considering that there were probably over two dozen characters in play. But what’s also impressive is that Galore didn’t feel overpopulated at all. While there were times when I had to check the family tree in the front of the book, each character managed to be singular and richly defined.
When I finally got to the last page, I fully realized the magic that Crummey had managed with this book. His story went from engaging and intriguing to ephemeral and awe-inspiring. It was an ending that I had started to guess at, but the implications it created made me rethink the whole story. And when I started to look back, I saw that those missing puzzle pieces had been there all along, just waiting for a savvy reader to pick them up and fit them all together. I can’t say I knew this all along though, and had to wait for that final page for the wheels to begin churning in my brain. In some ways, this book reminded me of A Hundred Years of Solitude, with its scope and intention feeling very similar. It also reminded me that when magical realism is done right, it can be just…well, magical.
I’m going to have to jump on the bandwagon and join the other reviewers who thought this book was brilliant. It wasn’t what I had been expecting, and although I had read several reviews, the book was constantly surprising to me. Though I went into things with high expectations, Galore really delivered and inspired me to check out more of Crummey’s work. It was definitely a dense and chewy book, but one that I think a lot of readers would enjoy. I know it was an unexpected treat for me. This is a book I would definitely recommend.
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widow Devine begins to cut through the animals stomach, she and the other onlookers are surprised to see a man tumble out. He’s a strange man indeed, with his white hair and skin, and he seems to be mute as well. He also stinks of dead fish, and it’s a smell destined to never go away. So begins the magical and dense saga of a town that’s unlike any you’ll ever experience. Love and hate, passions and feuds, birth and death, they’re all encompassed in this winding and rich tale of a town lost in the middle of the ocean, a town that society forgot. As Crummey follows the handful of families on the island over a span of a hundred years or more, we share in their heartbreaks and sorrows, their triumphs and defeats. In this magnificent and unusual tale, the magic of Paradise Deep and its inhabitants is cleverly meted out with an eye for the fantastical, wonderful and strange.This was a hard book to summarize; not because it was confusing but because there was just so much going on that it would have been impossible to even hint at all the plot permutations and narrative twists. I found that although I tried to sit down and read this one straight through, it was almost impossible to do so because of the book’s density and the abundance of genealogical information. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did. I thought there was a great use of magical realism that didn’t end up stretching into absurdity and that all the various components of the town’s saga were captivating and engaging. Though it took me awhile to rip through this one, I was very pleased with both the journey and the destination.
Part of what I loved about this book was Crummey’s ability to be playful and at times crass. It was obvious that although there was a lot of gravity in this story, the author didn’t take himself or his characters too seriously; in turn, I was rewarded with a great sense of the joviality of Paradise Deep’s residents. There were some heartbreaking moments as well, and the balance between gravity and humor was one that was well played within this tale. The more I read, the deeper I fell into the spell of the story and the more intimately I began to understand the characters and their motivations. There was a great give and take here, a seesawing between the details of the town’s growth and the characters’ interplay with one another that was mingled with just a touch of the magical realism that I so enjoy.
I think it’s a feat to manage such a sprawling novel the way that Crummey did. The book wasn’t astronomically large, but seemed to encompass so much time in a succinct and elegant way. From the moment the strange man is disgorged from the whale’s belly, Crummey is off and running with his history of Paradise Deep and his eccentric cast of characters, who are always doing something surprising and counter-intuitive. I also really enjoyed Crummey’s character creation because it was extremely layered for a book of this scope and size. Most of the characters were given a lot of development and substance, which is impressive considering that there were probably over two dozen characters in play. But what’s also impressive is that Galore didn’t feel overpopulated at all. While there were times when I had to check the family tree in the front of the book, each character managed to be singular and richly defined.
When I finally got to the last page, I fully realized the magic that Crummey had managed with this book. His story went from engaging and intriguing to ephemeral and awe-inspiring. It was an ending that I had started to guess at, but the implications it created made me rethink the whole story. And when I started to look back, I saw that those missing puzzle pieces had been there all along, just waiting for a savvy reader to pick them up and fit them all together. I can’t say I knew this all along though, and had to wait for that final page for the wheels to begin churning in my brain. In some ways, this book reminded me of A Hundred Years of Solitude, with its scope and intention feeling very similar. It also reminded me that when magical realism is done right, it can be just…well, magical.
I’m going to have to jump on the bandwagon and join the other reviewers who thought this book was brilliant. It wasn’t what I had been expecting, and although I had read several reviews, the book was constantly surprising to me. Though I went into things with high expectations, Galore really delivered and inspired me to check out more of Crummey’s work. It was definitely a dense and chewy book, but one that I think a lot of readers would enjoy. I know it was an unexpected treat for me. This is a book I would definitely recommend.
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LibraryThing member KatieANYC
This is 100 Years of Solitude, with a lighter touch and and Old Testament flair, set in Newfoundland. Many Canadian reviewers have testified to the cultural accuracy of this multi-generational, folkloric novel, but that shouldn't make American readers shy away, because the setting also feels just
Update: Coming to the US from Other Press in Spring 2011!
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like any tiny New England town. The love and myth and atmosphere will stay with you - highly recommended.Update: Coming to the US from Other Press in Spring 2011!
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LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
Michael Crummey was born & raised in Newfoundland, lives there still, and has set all of his meticulously researched novels & collections of short stories thus far in this beautiful, windswept, and harshly-demanding Canadian province.
is set in the outport villages of Paradise Deep and The Gut,
Inspired by the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Crummey has combined the starkly difficult conditions of pioneer outporters with a touch of magical realism. According to Wikipedia, magical realism is “an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even ‘normal’ setting.” This is Crummey’s first use of the method in his novels.
Part 1 of Galore more or less moves around the life of Mary Tryphena Devine who is nine years old the winter day that a whale beaches itself in the bay. From the whale’s belly emerges, half-dead, the man who becomes known as Judah, the Big White, whose presence will affect the lives of all in the port, and none more so than Mary Tryphena’s.
As Mary Tryphena matures, marries, has sons (one illegitimate), and then grandchildren, the story goes back and forth between the history of Mary T.’s grandmother (Devine’s Widow) and her parents, and the interconnection with King-Me Sellers and his grandson Absalom. The boy Absalom has fallen in love Mary T., who unbeknownst to him, is his first cousin. For this, he is banished to England for half a decade. While he is gone, Mary Tryphena is married to someone else and is lost to him.
Nearly four decades pass in the intermission between Parts 1 and 2, and we pick up the story with Mary Tryphena an old woman with the community role that her grandmother, Devine’s Widow, had. We learn of the events of the intervening years through the eyes of two grown brothers we last knew as boys who ferry the young newly-arrived Dr. Harold Newman to patients by boat, by dog-sled and on foot.
As they tell the stories that the reader already knows, it becomes clear that a large number of the people in the community do not believe the stories that have been passed on. It’s here that magical realism that has been interwoven into Part 1 is brought into question.
Did Judah really come out of the belly of the whale? Did he indeed bring the squid, and then fish galore? Did Callum really see the mermaid that the Woundy brothers nearly went overboard for? Was Jabez Trim’s bible really found in the gullet of a cod? How do we explain Mr. Gallagher?
I’m not a fan of magical realism, but I think that part of the reason that the author could use the technique so readily and successfully in the first half of the saga is the vacuum of any other explanation of other-worldly phenomena. The itinerant priest who served the marrying, baptizing, and burying needs of the Catholic population was an agent of superstition. (Not that the population was any better served in later times with the Protestant Reverend Dodge and the Catholic priest of the season. Both applied scriptures harshly and the Catholic church especially meddled in the political affairs of the people, threatening ex-communication for anyone who joined the Fishermen’s Protective Union in the early years of the twentieth century.)
Perhaps I just relate more easily to the starkness of early Newfoundland life than to the heat of Central America, but I found that, although I could not stomach Márquez, I loved the effect in Crummey’s Galore.
One of the effects that I felt played a huge part in this novel is the indeterminate passage of time. Crummey might pick up the next paragraph, page or chapter with the following week, but just as often with thirty years in the past or ten years hence, with no explanation or placement. At first, I found this disconcerting but as the story developed, I found it to be one of its greatest strengths. Dates were not important, particularly in Part 1.
Time passed from one generation to the next, affected strongly by the last, and life went on unchanged. World events had little, if any, impact on the people’s lives. There was no change in circumstances, no accumulation of material goods, no inheritances. There was simply the unending drudgery, cold, hunger, fishing, the cycles of plenty and want, the love, and the hate that remained the same for generation after generation. Hopeless circumstances and a futile existence.
Galore is not a happy book, but an amazingly powerful read. I highly recommend that you do just that.
is set in the outport villages of Paradise Deep and The Gut,
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joined by the Tolt Road over the headland between them, in an undefined period that covers most of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth. The novel chronicles the lives of two rival families (the Sellers and the Devines) for six generations, and I often referred to the genealogy chart at the front of the book, especially during my first reading.Inspired by the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Crummey has combined the starkly difficult conditions of pioneer outporters with a touch of magical realism. According to Wikipedia, magical realism is “an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even ‘normal’ setting.” This is Crummey’s first use of the method in his novels.
Part 1 of Galore more or less moves around the life of Mary Tryphena Devine who is nine years old the winter day that a whale beaches itself in the bay. From the whale’s belly emerges, half-dead, the man who becomes known as Judah, the Big White, whose presence will affect the lives of all in the port, and none more so than Mary Tryphena’s.
As Mary Tryphena matures, marries, has sons (one illegitimate), and then grandchildren, the story goes back and forth between the history of Mary T.’s grandmother (Devine’s Widow) and her parents, and the interconnection with King-Me Sellers and his grandson Absalom. The boy Absalom has fallen in love Mary T., who unbeknownst to him, is his first cousin. For this, he is banished to England for half a decade. While he is gone, Mary Tryphena is married to someone else and is lost to him.
Nearly four decades pass in the intermission between Parts 1 and 2, and we pick up the story with Mary Tryphena an old woman with the community role that her grandmother, Devine’s Widow, had. We learn of the events of the intervening years through the eyes of two grown brothers we last knew as boys who ferry the young newly-arrived Dr. Harold Newman to patients by boat, by dog-sled and on foot.
As they tell the stories that the reader already knows, it becomes clear that a large number of the people in the community do not believe the stories that have been passed on. It’s here that magical realism that has been interwoven into Part 1 is brought into question.
Did Judah really come out of the belly of the whale? Did he indeed bring the squid, and then fish galore? Did Callum really see the mermaid that the Woundy brothers nearly went overboard for? Was Jabez Trim’s bible really found in the gullet of a cod? How do we explain Mr. Gallagher?
I’m not a fan of magical realism, but I think that part of the reason that the author could use the technique so readily and successfully in the first half of the saga is the vacuum of any other explanation of other-worldly phenomena. The itinerant priest who served the marrying, baptizing, and burying needs of the Catholic population was an agent of superstition. (Not that the population was any better served in later times with the Protestant Reverend Dodge and the Catholic priest of the season. Both applied scriptures harshly and the Catholic church especially meddled in the political affairs of the people, threatening ex-communication for anyone who joined the Fishermen’s Protective Union in the early years of the twentieth century.)
Perhaps I just relate more easily to the starkness of early Newfoundland life than to the heat of Central America, but I found that, although I could not stomach Márquez, I loved the effect in Crummey’s Galore.
One of the effects that I felt played a huge part in this novel is the indeterminate passage of time. Crummey might pick up the next paragraph, page or chapter with the following week, but just as often with thirty years in the past or ten years hence, with no explanation or placement. At first, I found this disconcerting but as the story developed, I found it to be one of its greatest strengths. Dates were not important, particularly in Part 1.
Time passed from one generation to the next, affected strongly by the last, and life went on unchanged. World events had little, if any, impact on the people’s lives. There was no change in circumstances, no accumulation of material goods, no inheritances. There was simply the unending drudgery, cold, hunger, fishing, the cycles of plenty and want, the love, and the hate that remained the same for generation after generation. Hopeless circumstances and a futile existence.
Galore is not a happy book, but an amazingly powerful read. I highly recommend that you do just that.
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LibraryThing member ursula
Set in the small Newfoundland town of Paradise Deep, Galore gets your attention pretty quickly with a pale, odd man arriving on the shore in the belly of a whale. Now you know you're in for some magic realism or some supernatural goings-on or something along those lines. I've seen comparisons to
The lives of the townspeople are drawn with mythic and Biblical overtones, and actions have long-reaching generational consequences. The magic realism is pretty minimal overall; the book is mostly about people making a go of living in an unforgiving place.
Recommended for: people who like the idea of East of Eden crossed with One Hundred Years of Solitude, Canadians.
Quote: "She'd arrived in Newfoundland determined to turn the wheel of progress a notch and managed only to grind herself down on the implacable rock of the place."
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One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I can sort of get it - both novels cover a long time period and multiple generations of families. But where Solitude grabbed me, pulled me in and didn't let me go, I had difficulties with Galore. Judah (the guy in the whale) was definitely the most interesting character to me at the beginning, but then the narration drifts away from him and spends a long time with the other townspeople. At the end of Part I, I was seriously considering abandoning it. I decided to push on for a little while more, though, and somewhere around the 2/3 mark, it turned around for me. The lives of the townspeople are drawn with mythic and Biblical overtones, and actions have long-reaching generational consequences. The magic realism is pretty minimal overall; the book is mostly about people making a go of living in an unforgiving place.
Recommended for: people who like the idea of East of Eden crossed with One Hundred Years of Solitude, Canadians.
Quote: "She'd arrived in Newfoundland determined to turn the wheel of progress a notch and managed only to grind herself down on the implacable rock of the place."
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LibraryThing member vplprl
Crummey offers a fanciful, multi-generational saga of the Newfoundland outport of Paradise Deep. The genealogies of the Devine and Sellers families are biblical in scope and their histories distil myth, regional history, local gossip and tall tales in a tasty, yet potent brew. This is one of the
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best Canadian novels I’ve ever read! Show Less
LibraryThing member writestuff
Michael Crummey’s fantastical family saga begins in the latter part of the 18th century, around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, in the fictional town of Paradise Deep, Newfoundland. A whale beaches itself and the townspeople are shocked to discover a man in its belly who they christen Judah.
Galore is, at its heart, a tale of family connections and the power of storytelling. The two families in the book (the Devines and the Sellers) descend from Devine’s Widow, an elderly woman whose powers suggest witchcraft to many, and King-Me Sellers, a gruff business man who has never forgiven the Widow for her rejection of him.
Crummey takes his readers along a crooked and convoluted journey over the course of more than 100 years, introducing a multitude of unique and quirky characters. A helpful family tree is provided at the beginning of the novel which keeps all the connections straight – but, it is the folklore and rumor, and the personalities of the characters which drive the narrative. There is a feeling of other-worldliness to the novel – a sense that life is circular, that history repeats itself, that family stories go on and on, replaying themselves, and becoming more fantastical, that they are part of who we are and who we become.
Crummey’s skill at character development is evident from the beginning. Despite their oddness, his characters are believable, intriguing, and very real. So many of these characters were memorable. Two of my favorites were the Trim brothers – Obediah and Azariah – who are the keepers of the history of all the families of the town. They know all the connections, and can recite all the stories – their knowledge of the townpeople’s genealogy “biblical in its detail.”
They were practical and serious and outlandishly foreign. They described the deathly ill as wonderful sick. Anything brittle or fragile or tender was nish, anything out of plumb or uneven was asquish. They called the Adam’s apple a kinkorn, referred to the Devil as Horn Man. They’d once shown the doctor a scarred vellum copy of the Bible that Jabez Trim had cut from a cod’s stomach nearly a century past, a relic so singular and strange that Newman asked to see it whenever he visited, leafing through the pages with a kind of secular awe. He felt at times he’d been transported to a medieval world that was still half fairy tale. – from Galore, page 156 -
Galore is sprawling, rich, and delightful. It is not surprising that it has been short listed for several literary awards and has won both the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction. I loved this book for its tall tales, its surprising twists, and the characters which people its pages. Crummey understands the value of a good story and the lore and fantasy which are at the heart of family histories.
Readers who want to lose themselves in a book, and who wish to immerse themselves in a family saga rich in folklore, will be well served by picking up a copy of Galore.
Highly recommended.
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Judah’s skin is pale, and he emits a strong odor of fish – a smell that never goes away. Mute and odd, Judah is viewed alternately as a curse and a good luck charm. It is Judah’s story which weaves through the novel, connecting two families and symbolizing the importance of family lore and history.Galore is, at its heart, a tale of family connections and the power of storytelling. The two families in the book (the Devines and the Sellers) descend from Devine’s Widow, an elderly woman whose powers suggest witchcraft to many, and King-Me Sellers, a gruff business man who has never forgiven the Widow for her rejection of him.
Crummey takes his readers along a crooked and convoluted journey over the course of more than 100 years, introducing a multitude of unique and quirky characters. A helpful family tree is provided at the beginning of the novel which keeps all the connections straight – but, it is the folklore and rumor, and the personalities of the characters which drive the narrative. There is a feeling of other-worldliness to the novel – a sense that life is circular, that history repeats itself, that family stories go on and on, replaying themselves, and becoming more fantastical, that they are part of who we are and who we become.
Crummey’s skill at character development is evident from the beginning. Despite their oddness, his characters are believable, intriguing, and very real. So many of these characters were memorable. Two of my favorites were the Trim brothers – Obediah and Azariah – who are the keepers of the history of all the families of the town. They know all the connections, and can recite all the stories – their knowledge of the townpeople’s genealogy “biblical in its detail.”
They were practical and serious and outlandishly foreign. They described the deathly ill as wonderful sick. Anything brittle or fragile or tender was nish, anything out of plumb or uneven was asquish. They called the Adam’s apple a kinkorn, referred to the Devil as Horn Man. They’d once shown the doctor a scarred vellum copy of the Bible that Jabez Trim had cut from a cod’s stomach nearly a century past, a relic so singular and strange that Newman asked to see it whenever he visited, leafing through the pages with a kind of secular awe. He felt at times he’d been transported to a medieval world that was still half fairy tale. – from Galore, page 156 -
Galore is sprawling, rich, and delightful. It is not surprising that it has been short listed for several literary awards and has won both the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction. I loved this book for its tall tales, its surprising twists, and the characters which people its pages. Crummey understands the value of a good story and the lore and fantasy which are at the heart of family histories.
Readers who want to lose themselves in a book, and who wish to immerse themselves in a family saga rich in folklore, will be well served by picking up a copy of Galore.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member ChristaJLS
I don't know if you've ever read Alistair Macleod but he's this really great Canadian writer who is amazing at describing the settings of his books. Since most of his books take place on the Canadian east coast this means he's really good at making you feel damp and cold. Michael Crummey, another
Galore takes place is a small fishing village on the east coast and chronicles the lives of the Devine family. The novel spans across generations, beginning with the arrival of a beached whale on the shores of Paradise Deep. Upon further examination of the whale, a man is found in his stomach. Much to everyone's amazement this man is still alive but unable to speak. He is named Judah and taken in by the Devine family. Following children and grand children, you watch as this family survives against an incredibly harsh climate, decades long disputes, political changes and a war.
This book was brilliant! Like I mentioned earlier Crummey does an amazing job at setting the scene. Newfoundland (weather-wise) is not the ideal place to be. It rains, a lot, and winters are harsh and difficult – especially if you're a remote fishing village. Crummey makes you feel like you're facing this atmosphere head on with the characters and he does so in a way that you don't even notice it. It's mixed right in with the dialogue and action. I don't mean to suggest that you're going to be shivering while you read this but you are definitely going to empathize with these towns-people.
As for the characters, there are certainly a lot of them. I think all in all the book spans 4-5 generations of the Devine family and you get to know each generation quite intimately. Though many of their problems are the same, each character is also unique. I felt like I knew each one and as a result there were some I connected with and some I despised. You get swept up in all the family squabbles and long time disputes. The relationships that formed were also quite beautiful in their way. Due to the time period and place, people didn't generally come together via romantic love but many of their relationships still ended up strong and respectful. And when love was involved there was usually heartache to go with it. The heartache and other emotions just felt so real and so human. It was easy to forget you were reading a book and not just hearing about people you've known your whole life.
Galore is not a light read. It's not depressing either. It's a full range of thoughts and emotions, the same way that you experience a full range of thoughts and emotions in a life. It's beautifully written and well crafted. Michael Crummey is clearly a very talented author and one I look forward to reading more of in the future.
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native of the Canadian east coast (Newfoundland to be exact) can now be said to share that gift.Galore takes place is a small fishing village on the east coast and chronicles the lives of the Devine family. The novel spans across generations, beginning with the arrival of a beached whale on the shores of Paradise Deep. Upon further examination of the whale, a man is found in his stomach. Much to everyone's amazement this man is still alive but unable to speak. He is named Judah and taken in by the Devine family. Following children and grand children, you watch as this family survives against an incredibly harsh climate, decades long disputes, political changes and a war.
This book was brilliant! Like I mentioned earlier Crummey does an amazing job at setting the scene. Newfoundland (weather-wise) is not the ideal place to be. It rains, a lot, and winters are harsh and difficult – especially if you're a remote fishing village. Crummey makes you feel like you're facing this atmosphere head on with the characters and he does so in a way that you don't even notice it. It's mixed right in with the dialogue and action. I don't mean to suggest that you're going to be shivering while you read this but you are definitely going to empathize with these towns-people.
As for the characters, there are certainly a lot of them. I think all in all the book spans 4-5 generations of the Devine family and you get to know each generation quite intimately. Though many of their problems are the same, each character is also unique. I felt like I knew each one and as a result there were some I connected with and some I despised. You get swept up in all the family squabbles and long time disputes. The relationships that formed were also quite beautiful in their way. Due to the time period and place, people didn't generally come together via romantic love but many of their relationships still ended up strong and respectful. And when love was involved there was usually heartache to go with it. The heartache and other emotions just felt so real and so human. It was easy to forget you were reading a book and not just hearing about people you've known your whole life.
Galore is not a light read. It's not depressing either. It's a full range of thoughts and emotions, the same way that you experience a full range of thoughts and emotions in a life. It's beautifully written and well crafted. Michael Crummey is clearly a very talented author and one I look forward to reading more of in the future.
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LibraryThing member rglossne
This was one of the best novels I've read in a very long time. My family comes from Newfoundland, and in the stories and myths, I could hear their voices.
The book tells the story of four generations of two families in the same fishing village. Their lives and fortunes are intertwined in ways even
Unforgettable characters, fantastic events, social history, legends. Loved it.
The book tells the story of four generations of two families in the same fishing village. Their lives and fortunes are intertwined in ways even
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they do not fully understand. Unforgettable characters, fantastic events, social history, legends. Loved it.
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LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
Very fine novel in the vein of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. Really enjoyed this. All sorts of symbolism runnin all over the place... I especially was intrigued by the bodily malformations and disfigurements... all over the place!
LibraryThing member dgmlrhodes
This was a good literary tale starting with a man being born out of a whales mouth. There were a lot of old fashioned tales/myths that tied together this novel and a lot of literary implications. This book is multi layered and well worth the read!
LibraryThing member jacoombs
Magical realism in the Outports of Newfoundland. The start is stronger than the finish but still an evocative epic of difficult times.
LibraryThing member JBD1
One of those uncommon books that just drags you into its world and won't let go. Crummey's sprawling, epic novel is set in a small settlement on the harsh shores of Newfoundland, populated by generations of fishermen and merchants, doctors and clergymen, wives and children. Filled with lore and
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legend, unfamiliar words and characters who I found myself thinking about even when I was far from the book, this is a story to linger over and savor each page of. Show Less
LibraryThing member RBeffa
Books like this are a minor feast for one's imagination. This is an almost stunning multi-generational eccentric novel set in a fishing village on the Newfoundland coast where the real world and some other intersect. I was slowly sucked into this - at first I thought I had found a fairytale mashup
On the downside the author uses an unconventional writing style that I never quite got used to. It slowed down my reading and it hindered my enjoyment. I was constantly re-reading passages. It gave me a fair bit of confusion particularly in the beginning with a large cast of characters that took quite a while to get a handle on. In a book this dependent on conversation I don't like the lack of conventional style.
Still, I persevered and the book took some very unexpected turns as the details were fleshed out. This is surely an unusual set of stories with very unusual characters. For me this novel never made the leap from "intriguing" to "awesome". There are also a lot of people leading unhappy lives here.
I couldn't make up my mind on rating this, veering from 4 stars to 3 stars to 4 and back again. I leave it with 3, which seems a little unfair. But so is the book.
There is a family tree at the front of the book that I frequently referred to. It doesn't cover many of the characters however.
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of "The Shipping News" meets "Jonah and the Whale" with a dash of "Haven". The story shifts through time and it takes quite a while before we learn some of the back stories of the characters and some of what we surmised is not necessarily what was.On the downside the author uses an unconventional writing style that I never quite got used to. It slowed down my reading and it hindered my enjoyment. I was constantly re-reading passages. It gave me a fair bit of confusion particularly in the beginning with a large cast of characters that took quite a while to get a handle on. In a book this dependent on conversation I don't like the lack of conventional style.
Still, I persevered and the book took some very unexpected turns as the details were fleshed out. This is surely an unusual set of stories with very unusual characters. For me this novel never made the leap from "intriguing" to "awesome". There are also a lot of people leading unhappy lives here.
I couldn't make up my mind on rating this, veering from 4 stars to 3 stars to 4 and back again. I leave it with 3, which seems a little unfair. But so is the book.
There is a family tree at the front of the book that I frequently referred to. It doesn't cover many of the characters however.
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LibraryThing member janeajones
This is a sprawling multi-generational book of two families, the Devines and the Sellers, set in a the small Newfoundland fishing village, Paradise Deep, from the mid 19th c. through World War I. It begins with a miraculous "birth" of a naked, pale, white man rescued from the belly of a beached
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whale. But the history of the families goes back further to the mysterious feud between the Widow Devine and "King-me" Sellers the matriarch and patriarch of the two families. Crummey explores the hard-scrabble Newfoundland life through times of plenty and times of scarcity. The stories of the families are told through multiple viewpoints that work to keep the reader engaged in the lives and trials of a surprising variety of characters. A highly entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member lisapeet
As the title promises, Michael Crummey’s newest novel, Galore, delivers great abundance: of personalities, history, folklore, and vernacular. It is a yarn in the best sense of the word, unspooling over the course of a century in a small Newfoundland fishing village to give us not just the history
The tales start off tall and gradually compact, as the book rolls along, to accommodate the modern age. But the beginning is well-nigh Biblical. A whale washes up on shore one April and a mute, albino-white man tumbles from its slit belly:
"The Toucher triplets were poking idly at the massive gut with splitting knives and prongs, dirty seawater pouring from the gash they opened, a crest of blood, a school of undigested capelin and herring, and then the head appeared, the boys screaming and falling away at the sight. It was a human head, the hair bleached white. One pale arm flopped through the ragged incision and dangled into the water.
"For a time no one moved or spoke, watching as if they expected the man to stand and walk ashore of his own accord. Devine’s Widow waded over finally to finish the job, the body slipping into the water as she’s cut it free. The Catholics crossed themselves in concert and Jabez Trim said, Naked came I from my mother’s womb."
The stink of fish refuses to wash off him, and though he eventually comes to be called Judah—a compromise between Judas and Jonah, as the matter of who was famously swallowed by the whale is never quite agreed on—for a time he is known only as the stranger. And a stranger he is, not only in his considerable oddness but because he becomes a fulcrum of sorts in the deeply divided community. Paradise Deep is what passes for the village, holding the single store, the docks, and the cove’s only wood-floored house, all the domain of its first settler, King-Me Sellers—so named because of his penchant for cheating at checkers. Separated from the ramshackle town center by a long ridge and scrub forest is the Gut, home to the Irish and the “bushborn.” This is the domain of Devine’s Widow, sworn enemy of King-Me Sellers, midwife, matriarch, perhaps a witch, and her descendants. The two families’ mutual distrust, of course, produces its own kind of passion: Sellers’ daughter and Devine’s Widow’s son manage a long and mostly happy marriage despite the animosity of their parents. And their daughter Mary Tryphena, whose destiny is tangled with Judah’s for most of her life, still carries a flame for King-Me’s grandson, Absalom.
They are split by religion, too—not only the Catholic-Protestant division you’d expect of British and Irish immigrants, but in the ways the old customs are supplanted by the new. When the novel opens, collective belief is embodied in the town’s one incomplete copy of the Bible “recovered from the gullet of a cod the size of a goat,” a sacred apple tree brought over as a sapling from Ireland a hundred years prior, and the charmingly drunken Jesuit, Father Phelan. But the years bring a Catholic priest from St. John’s who excommunicates poor Father Phelan and a series of ill-fated churches of both faiths, each grander than the next. Paradise Deep gets a doctor, and then a union organizer, and a hospital is built, and a union hall. Little by little the old ways give in to the pull of modernity, but at the cost of the community’s animating mystery—Judah’s acceptance first hinges on the sudden change in fishing fortune that coincides with his arrival, but eventually he becomes their sin eater, locked away for a crime he didn’t commit, and it’s clear that the cove’s residents are the poorer for it. If Crummey makes a single misstep structuring the book, it would be in dividing it into two parts; what happens to Paradise Deep and its denizens in that span of time doesn’t need to be spelled out so heavy-handedly. As the old magic gives way to the new commerce, and a year is finally named, rooting the story in history rather than timelessness, it’s clear what we’re being shown. He’s a more skillful writer than that, and his evocations of the ways the past hangs on need no further explanation:
"The old hospital had the feel of a place evacuated during an emergency. The air smelled of formaldehyde and disinfectant and chloroform and rot. The margins of each room cluttered with the detritus of thirty years of frontier medicine, outdated equipment, empty glass bottles and stacks of paper, the shards of ten thousand teeth trapped along the baseboards."
Crummey’s descriptions of people and places, thick with the wonderful local dialect and at the same time sinuous and evocative, are what bring Galore its sense of plenty. The cast of characters, with their loves and feuds, is complicated enough that the book leads off with not one but two pages of family trees. This is a beautifully realized, roughshod little world, ruled equally by passion and poverty, magic and religion and merchantry. If these matriarchs and patriarchs and nods to the supernatural conjure up thoughts of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, that’s all right—the novel’s epigraph is a quote of his: “The invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love.” But here the elements of magic realism are not so much whimsical as utilitarian. Crummey nods to ghosts and spells and moves along; they are no less real than the secret longing his characters each carry in their hearts.
For it’s love in all its guises that fuels the book, that keeps these stuttering, stinking, odd and at the same time thoroughly recognizable characters so mobile. And though Salon’s Good Sex in Fiction Awards have come and gone this year, I’d happily nominate Galore for the running in 2012. Consider, for instance, the good Father Phelan:
"Mrs. Gallery’s bed was constructed in the same fashion as the wharves and fish flakes and walls of the tilts, spruce logs skinned of their rind and nailed lengthwise on one side of the room. There was a thick layer of boughs as a mattress and bedding of ancient woolen blankets and a leathery sealskin and underneath it all the heat of Mrs. Gallery. He lifted the covers and crawled in beside her. Her mouth sweet as spruce gum and the skin of her thighs like fresh cream. Mrs. Gallery spread her legs and brought his hand to the wet of her, a little noise at the back of her throat when he found it. —That’s the bowl that never goes empty, Mrs. Gallery, he whispered. —That’s the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. His hand rocking slowly into her and he began talking in Latin, his voice rising enough to be heard through the house as she came for the first time."
And the scene of young Abel Devine’s deflowering by an older woman, late in the book, is nothing but sweet:
"They lay nearly naked on the bed afterwards, silent under the weight of what had passed between them. Abel forced himself up on an elbow to look down at her. —Esther, he said, but she placed a finger against his lips. She said, Never tell a woman you love her, Abel.
"He stared, his eyes filming over with tears.
"—It will always sound like a lie, she said. —Better you let a woman figure it out for herself."
In a book where nearly everything is driven by misplaced love, it’s interesting that two who find some version of happily realized desire are the apostate Catholic priest and the country doctor. A small subtle message: that to gain true love it may prove useful to have a passion above oneself, whether healing or ministering. And another, sadder one: that the truest enemy of love is to live a long life:
"The stairs were almost too much for him and he stood on the landing a minute to get his wind. Ambushed by an image of Bride as the cancer dismantled her one organ at a time, the veins showing through her papery skin. The false teeth in her wasted face made her look a corpse in the bed and he’d wished he was dead, watching her leave in so much torment. —I can make it stop, he told her, knowing she’d never consent to such a thing. —When you’re ready.
"Bride offering the slightest nod. —Now the once, she said.
"It was the oddest expression he’d learned on the shore. Now the once. The present twined with the past to mean soon, a bit later, at some unspecified point in the future. As if it was all the same finally, as if time was a single moment endlessly circling on itself."
In the tale’s final pages, this idea—now the once—assumes majestic proportions. Not only are the places, the characters, and their words rendered deftly and with kindness throughout, even the most unlovable among them, but the bones of the story itself are constructed with a master craftsman’s skill. This yarn unspools with joy even as it winds itself into a new ball, and the reader is rewarded, at the very end, with a startling, elegant symmetry. Galore is indeed full, stuffed to bursting with humanity, and Michael Crummey has done the citizens of Paradise Deep justice.
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of a place and its people, but of its storytelling.The tales start off tall and gradually compact, as the book rolls along, to accommodate the modern age. But the beginning is well-nigh Biblical. A whale washes up on shore one April and a mute, albino-white man tumbles from its slit belly:
"The Toucher triplets were poking idly at the massive gut with splitting knives and prongs, dirty seawater pouring from the gash they opened, a crest of blood, a school of undigested capelin and herring, and then the head appeared, the boys screaming and falling away at the sight. It was a human head, the hair bleached white. One pale arm flopped through the ragged incision and dangled into the water.
"For a time no one moved or spoke, watching as if they expected the man to stand and walk ashore of his own accord. Devine’s Widow waded over finally to finish the job, the body slipping into the water as she’s cut it free. The Catholics crossed themselves in concert and Jabez Trim said, Naked came I from my mother’s womb."
The stink of fish refuses to wash off him, and though he eventually comes to be called Judah—a compromise between Judas and Jonah, as the matter of who was famously swallowed by the whale is never quite agreed on—for a time he is known only as the stranger. And a stranger he is, not only in his considerable oddness but because he becomes a fulcrum of sorts in the deeply divided community. Paradise Deep is what passes for the village, holding the single store, the docks, and the cove’s only wood-floored house, all the domain of its first settler, King-Me Sellers—so named because of his penchant for cheating at checkers. Separated from the ramshackle town center by a long ridge and scrub forest is the Gut, home to the Irish and the “bushborn.” This is the domain of Devine’s Widow, sworn enemy of King-Me Sellers, midwife, matriarch, perhaps a witch, and her descendants. The two families’ mutual distrust, of course, produces its own kind of passion: Sellers’ daughter and Devine’s Widow’s son manage a long and mostly happy marriage despite the animosity of their parents. And their daughter Mary Tryphena, whose destiny is tangled with Judah’s for most of her life, still carries a flame for King-Me’s grandson, Absalom.
They are split by religion, too—not only the Catholic-Protestant division you’d expect of British and Irish immigrants, but in the ways the old customs are supplanted by the new. When the novel opens, collective belief is embodied in the town’s one incomplete copy of the Bible “recovered from the gullet of a cod the size of a goat,” a sacred apple tree brought over as a sapling from Ireland a hundred years prior, and the charmingly drunken Jesuit, Father Phelan. But the years bring a Catholic priest from St. John’s who excommunicates poor Father Phelan and a series of ill-fated churches of both faiths, each grander than the next. Paradise Deep gets a doctor, and then a union organizer, and a hospital is built, and a union hall. Little by little the old ways give in to the pull of modernity, but at the cost of the community’s animating mystery—Judah’s acceptance first hinges on the sudden change in fishing fortune that coincides with his arrival, but eventually he becomes their sin eater, locked away for a crime he didn’t commit, and it’s clear that the cove’s residents are the poorer for it. If Crummey makes a single misstep structuring the book, it would be in dividing it into two parts; what happens to Paradise Deep and its denizens in that span of time doesn’t need to be spelled out so heavy-handedly. As the old magic gives way to the new commerce, and a year is finally named, rooting the story in history rather than timelessness, it’s clear what we’re being shown. He’s a more skillful writer than that, and his evocations of the ways the past hangs on need no further explanation:
"The old hospital had the feel of a place evacuated during an emergency. The air smelled of formaldehyde and disinfectant and chloroform and rot. The margins of each room cluttered with the detritus of thirty years of frontier medicine, outdated equipment, empty glass bottles and stacks of paper, the shards of ten thousand teeth trapped along the baseboards."
Crummey’s descriptions of people and places, thick with the wonderful local dialect and at the same time sinuous and evocative, are what bring Galore its sense of plenty. The cast of characters, with their loves and feuds, is complicated enough that the book leads off with not one but two pages of family trees. This is a beautifully realized, roughshod little world, ruled equally by passion and poverty, magic and religion and merchantry. If these matriarchs and patriarchs and nods to the supernatural conjure up thoughts of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, that’s all right—the novel’s epigraph is a quote of his: “The invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love.” But here the elements of magic realism are not so much whimsical as utilitarian. Crummey nods to ghosts and spells and moves along; they are no less real than the secret longing his characters each carry in their hearts.
For it’s love in all its guises that fuels the book, that keeps these stuttering, stinking, odd and at the same time thoroughly recognizable characters so mobile. And though Salon’s Good Sex in Fiction Awards have come and gone this year, I’d happily nominate Galore for the running in 2012. Consider, for instance, the good Father Phelan:
"Mrs. Gallery’s bed was constructed in the same fashion as the wharves and fish flakes and walls of the tilts, spruce logs skinned of their rind and nailed lengthwise on one side of the room. There was a thick layer of boughs as a mattress and bedding of ancient woolen blankets and a leathery sealskin and underneath it all the heat of Mrs. Gallery. He lifted the covers and crawled in beside her. Her mouth sweet as spruce gum and the skin of her thighs like fresh cream. Mrs. Gallery spread her legs and brought his hand to the wet of her, a little noise at the back of her throat when he found it. —That’s the bowl that never goes empty, Mrs. Gallery, he whispered. —That’s the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. His hand rocking slowly into her and he began talking in Latin, his voice rising enough to be heard through the house as she came for the first time."
And the scene of young Abel Devine’s deflowering by an older woman, late in the book, is nothing but sweet:
"They lay nearly naked on the bed afterwards, silent under the weight of what had passed between them. Abel forced himself up on an elbow to look down at her. —Esther, he said, but she placed a finger against his lips. She said, Never tell a woman you love her, Abel.
"He stared, his eyes filming over with tears.
"—It will always sound like a lie, she said. —Better you let a woman figure it out for herself."
In a book where nearly everything is driven by misplaced love, it’s interesting that two who find some version of happily realized desire are the apostate Catholic priest and the country doctor. A small subtle message: that to gain true love it may prove useful to have a passion above oneself, whether healing or ministering. And another, sadder one: that the truest enemy of love is to live a long life:
"The stairs were almost too much for him and he stood on the landing a minute to get his wind. Ambushed by an image of Bride as the cancer dismantled her one organ at a time, the veins showing through her papery skin. The false teeth in her wasted face made her look a corpse in the bed and he’d wished he was dead, watching her leave in so much torment. —I can make it stop, he told her, knowing she’d never consent to such a thing. —When you’re ready.
"Bride offering the slightest nod. —Now the once, she said.
"It was the oddest expression he’d learned on the shore. Now the once. The present twined with the past to mean soon, a bit later, at some unspecified point in the future. As if it was all the same finally, as if time was a single moment endlessly circling on itself."
In the tale’s final pages, this idea—now the once—assumes majestic proportions. Not only are the places, the characters, and their words rendered deftly and with kindness throughout, even the most unlovable among them, but the bones of the story itself are constructed with a master craftsman’s skill. This yarn unspools with joy even as it winds itself into a new ball, and the reader is rewarded, at the very end, with a startling, elegant symmetry. Galore is indeed full, stuffed to bursting with humanity, and Michael Crummey has done the citizens of Paradise Deep justice.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Twink
Wow - this fall has produced some fantastic novels by Canadian authors.
My latest discovery is Galore by Michael Crummey, released from Random House Canada.
Galore opens sometime in the past in rural Newfoundland. It is hard times and the locals are respectfully waiting for a whale to die before they
Paradise Deep is an isolated fishing port, insulated from the rest of the country by geography and tradition. Populated by characters both unusual, yet captivating, Galore is a mesmerizing read. It traces the intertwined lives of the residents through many generations. There is a magical feel to the book. Devine's Widow placed a curse many years ago on King-Me Sellers and his descendants. She is feared, yet revered by many. The fact that it is she who takes in Judah further builds her legend. Galore is the story of these two families and their descendants.
There are supernatural elements introduced, many taken from Newfoundland folklore and legends that Crummey discovered while researching his book. Baptism by passing a child through the branches of an ancient apple tree, a ghost who is seen by many but refuses to leave, superstitions and traditions that are accepted as part of their lives.
Dr. Newman, an American who comes to Paradise Deep "felt at times he'd been transported to a medieval world that was still half fairy tale."
But it is also the story of a rugged land and the resilient people who populate it. Politics and the formation of a fisheries union bring the world to Paradise Deep in the second half of of the book. But the past and history of the Rock is always there, coming full circle by the last page.
Crummey himself is Newfoundland born and bred and his voice captures the tone and timbre of a land and it's people.
I was quite sad to turn the last page. I had become completely caught up in Galore.
This was the first of Crummey's books that I had read and it definitely won't be the last. Highly recommended.
My latest discovery is Galore by Michael Crummey, released from Random House Canada.
Galore opens sometime in the past in rural Newfoundland. It is hard times and the locals are respectfully waiting for a whale to die before they
Show More
butcher it. Devine's Widow slices open the belly and a naked man falls out. As they carry him to the graveyard, he suddenly awakes. Unknown to any of them, he cannot tell them who he is, as he is mute. They christen him Judah and his life is inevitably woven into the tapestry, lives and memories of the people of Paradise Deep.Paradise Deep is an isolated fishing port, insulated from the rest of the country by geography and tradition. Populated by characters both unusual, yet captivating, Galore is a mesmerizing read. It traces the intertwined lives of the residents through many generations. There is a magical feel to the book. Devine's Widow placed a curse many years ago on King-Me Sellers and his descendants. She is feared, yet revered by many. The fact that it is she who takes in Judah further builds her legend. Galore is the story of these two families and their descendants.
There are supernatural elements introduced, many taken from Newfoundland folklore and legends that Crummey discovered while researching his book. Baptism by passing a child through the branches of an ancient apple tree, a ghost who is seen by many but refuses to leave, superstitions and traditions that are accepted as part of their lives.
Dr. Newman, an American who comes to Paradise Deep "felt at times he'd been transported to a medieval world that was still half fairy tale."
But it is also the story of a rugged land and the resilient people who populate it. Politics and the formation of a fisheries union bring the world to Paradise Deep in the second half of of the book. But the past and history of the Rock is always there, coming full circle by the last page.
Crummey himself is Newfoundland born and bred and his voice captures the tone and timbre of a land and it's people.
I was quite sad to turn the last page. I had become completely caught up in Galore.
This was the first of Crummey's books that I had read and it definitely won't be the last. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member fiverivers
Written with Michael Crummey's highly readable wit and insight, Galore is a rethinking of the story of Jonah and the whale, albeit without the Biblical admonition about destiny. In fact, one might say Crummey refutes the concept of preordination in this family saga rife with pig-headed vengeance,
The language is clever, employing literary devices with a deft hand while keeping the Newfoundland dialect intact. The characters he sketches are fully-realized, and although their lives are beset with the incredible, they are also quite believable. It has always been an amazement to me how Crummey does that: creates extraordinary characters who are believable and accessible.
Definitely going on my shelves in hardcover.
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of conversations never opened, of secrets and shames. It is a raw tale, a ridiculous tale, and despite that element of the ridiculous, there is also the ring of truth to the lives Crummey reveals to us. The language is clever, employing literary devices with a deft hand while keeping the Newfoundland dialect intact. The characters he sketches are fully-realized, and although their lives are beset with the incredible, they are also quite believable. It has always been an amazement to me how Crummey does that: creates extraordinary characters who are believable and accessible.
Definitely going on my shelves in hardcover.
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LibraryThing member tnociti
I became completely absorbed in this totally different and exceedingly bizarre tale. The main setting of the book is a remote village in Newfoundland and the novel stretches over several generations. The names and relationships were a bit difficult to follow and keep straight. There is a family
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tree at the beginning of the book and it does require a lot of referring back. At least it did for me. That was a trifle tedious but what a story! Show Less
LibraryThing member TheBookJunky
Great. 8 1/2, maybe 9. At first, before I read it, I wondered if it would be too fantastical for my tastes. But no. He pulled it off. The magical or the legendary bits were just part of it. He smoothly integrated it so you feel, you know that they live this way of thinking. That even the un-real is
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real. Show Less
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Shortlist — 2011)
Governor General's Literary Award (Finalist — 2009)
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Winner — 2010)
Atlantic Book Awards (Shortlist — Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize, Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award — 2010)
Libris Award (Nominee — Fiction — 2010)
BMO Winterset Award (Shortlist — 2009)
Canadian Authors Association Award (Winner — 2010)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Historical Fiction — 2011)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2009)
Language
Original publication date
2009-08-11
ISBN
1590514351 / 9781590514351