TRADITIONS, CREATED AND SUBVERTED. Love, nurtured and destroyed. Friendships, marriages, and the wild beauty of Cape Breton Island. And above all, kin, in all its convoluted forms. In Kin, bestselling author Lesley Crewe traces the tangled lines of loyalty, tragedy, joy, and love through three generations of families. Beginning with Annie Macdonald, an effervescent seven-year-old living in Glace Bay in the 1930s, and ending with Annie's great-niece Hilary, an idealistic twenty-year-old in Round Island in 2000, the story is complex and riveting. The cast of characters is vast and varied-some with the island's deliciously cutting wit, some dour and uptight, some frail, some resilient, and all inextricably bound by their shared histories. Brimming with humour and poignancy, Kin is a celebration of the heartbreaking, maddening joy that is family.** Views: 10
On an icy night in October 1984, a Piper Navajo commuter plane carrying 9 passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta, killing 6 people. Four survived: the rookie pilot, a prominent politician, a cop, and the criminal he was escorting to face charges. Despite the poor weather, Erik Vogel, the 24-year-old pilot, was under intense pressure to fly--a situation not uncommon to pilots working for small airlines. Overworked and exhausted, he feared losing his job if he refused to fly. Larry Shaben, the author's father and Canada's first Muslim Cabinet Minister, was commuting home after a busy week at the Alberta Legislature. After Paul Archambault, a drifter wanted on an outstanding warrant, boarded the plane, rookie Constable Scott Deschamps decided, against RCMP regulations, to remove his handcuffs--a decision that profoundly impacted the men's survival. As they fought through the night to stay alive, the dividing lines of power, wealth and status were erased... Views: 10
The Good Boy is a first-hand account of a young man's struggle with religion, gay sex, marriage and middle-class morality. The writer first looks at the hero's pioneering ancestors and behavioural links across the generations of the extended Irish Catholic families into which he was born.A quiet 'middle' child, he grows through the turmoil and confusion of a hormone-charged adolescence, facing the dilemma of how to follow the teachings of the church, yet get enough sex. He finds part-time work as a gigolo, a life model and even as a minor actor in the gay porn industry. Sensing the self-destructive nature of this course of action, he seeks safety in a Trappist monastery, but after a year or two of peace and silence, he returns to the 'real' world of middle-class morality, sex and sin.Desperate to be 'normal', he chooses to be heterosexual, meets and marries a pretty girl...Only in middle age does he accept that he is, and always was, homosexual, recognising that... Views: 10
Torn between love and duty...Following a disastrous marriage to a miner, Karen has devoted herself to a nursing career. Rising to the challenge of caring for the wounded soldiers returning home from the Great War, she has resigned herself to putting her vocation before any hope of a romantic life.However, she finds herself drawn to handsome, troubled Patrick Murphy. But Patrick is also a Catholic priest. Dare Karen risk scandal and her position by falling for the one man she cannot have...? Views: 10
WILLING CAPTIVE?When Miss Jane Lanchester is mistakenly abducted her captors soon realise they have underestimated this feisty young woman. Brave Jane makes a daring break, only to be assisted by one of her kidnappers--the mysterious and well-bred George who offers her his exclusive protection. Fleeing for their lives, Jane and Lord George Marlowe form a deep attachment! Jane can't bear the thought of losing him once the danger is past. All she can hope is that George turns her from willing captive to his willing wife... Views: 10
Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army. A new novel about identity and loss by bestselling award-winning author of WAR HORSE. Michael doesn’t remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war. And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn’t like to talk about her husband. But then Auntie Snowdrop gives Michael a medal, followed by a photograph, which begin to reveal a hidden history. A story of love and loss. A story that will change everything – and reveal to Michael who he really is… Views: 10
