David Adams Richards

A Novel

Mercy Among the Children

Tragedy of Eva Mott

A fresh new novel from a Canadian literary legend--this time with an extraordinary and unforgettable woman protagonist who is sure to become one of the great characters in our literature. Mary Cyr opens in Mexico, just as a disaster strikes a small town: a coal-mine has collapsed, with thirteen men trapped inside. Less than forty-eight hours later, the authorities summarily decide to abandon all hope of finding survivors and seal up the mine entrance--willfully oblivious to the half-dozen souls still breathing below ground. Shortly after that, a thirteen-year-old Mexican boy, Victor, is discovered dead in the hotel room of a Canadian visitor--a 45-year-old woman, and heiress to a vast fortune, who goes by the name Mary Cyr. Thus begins this shocking, brilliant and compelling novel--a late-career tour de force by one of our most unique and powerful writers. In his last couple of novels, David Adams Richards has widened the scope of his vision and his world, taking us into far-flung countries and lives even as his beloved territory of New Brunswick's Miramichi remains his touchstone, the spot to which all his stories return. In Mary Cyr, the unwinding tale will take us from a harsh jail cell in Mexico, where Mary Cyr is imprisoned, deep into Canadian police officer John Delano's past, and even further into the murky depths of a wealthy New Brunswick family whose ties to mining, newspapers and a host of other interests lead to the highest corridors of power. At the heart of this maelstrom lies a woman who is compromised and confused, but also poignant, wounded and well-intentioned: the beautiful and tragic Mary Cyr.

Mary Cyr

A brilliant, heartbreaking novel from a Canadian icon that tackles the theme of debt, and what we owe each other, through three unforgettable characters. This novel can be seen as a companion to the award-winning and much-loved "Mercy." The very topical, current theme of debt, what each of us owes one another, and how (and if) debt can be paid weaves throughout the story. There are echoes of the ancient story of Cain and Abel as well as nods to recent events like the housing meltdown - all within a parable-like trio of interlocking storylines.

Crimes Against My Brother

The Lost Highway

Set mainly within a small rural area along a bay between New Brunswick and P.E.I., "The Bay of Love and Sorrow is a hard-hitting tale of ambition and betrayal in which the senseless murder of a young woman in the summer of 1974 changes the lives of an entire community. Events are set in motion when the once-strong friendship between privileged Michael Skid, the young son of a judge from town, and farmhand Tommie Donnerel ends in bitter misunderstanding. As Michael sets out to prove something to himself and to others, he finds himself drawn into the company of the beautiful, strong-willed Madonna Brassaurd and her brother, Silver. The three of them soon fall prey to the glamour of Everette Hutch, a charismatic and violent man, whose latest scheme pulls them in over their heads, leading to tragedy. Bridging the decent world of Tommie Donnerel and the darker realm of the Brassaurds and Everette Hutch is Karrie Smith. She is home for the summer from community college, and it is her poignant longings for a different life that make her most vulnerable to a world she doesn't understand. The summer becomes fraught with desperation and abrupt changes of fortune, but it is only in the aftermath of murder that the real truth flowers for those who have been most responsible. Taut, intricately layered, written in penetrating prose, "The Bay of Love and Sorrows explores the possibility of redemption in whatever circumstances people find themselves.

The Bay of Love and Sorrows

David Adams Richards’ Governor General’s Award-winning novel is a powerful tale of resignation and struggle, fierce loyalties and compassion. This book is the first in Richards’ acclaimed Miramichi trilogy. Set in a small mill town in northern New Brunswick, it draws us into the lives of a community of people who live there, including: Joe Walsh, isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita, willing to believe the best about people; and their teenage daughter Adele, whose nature is rebellious and wise, and whose love for her father wars with her desire for independence. Richards’ unforgettable characters are linked together in conflict, and in articulate love and understanding. Their plight as human beings is one we share. From the Hardcover edition.

Nights Below Station Street

The Pariahs

The Spectre of Oblivion: Lacuna, #3

Lacuna

A family feels the effects of their patriarch’s implication in a tragic death in this novel exploring good, evil, and the freedom to choose between them. At the age of twelve, Sidney Henderson, in a moment of anger, pushes his friend Connie Devlin off the roof of a local church. Looking down on Connie’s motionless body, Sidney believes he is dead. Let Connie live and I will never harm another soul, Sidney vows. At that moment, Connie stands up and, laughing, walks away. In the years that follow, the brilliant, self-educated, ever-gentle Sidney keeps his promise, even in the face of the hatred and persecution of his insular, rural community, which sees his pacifism as an opportunity to exploit and abuse him. Sidney’s son Lyle, however, witnessing his family’s suffering with growing resentment and anger, comes to reject both God and his father and assumes an increasingly aggressive stance in defense of his family. When a small boy is killed in a tragic accident and Sidney is blamed, Lyle takes matters into his own, violent hands to protect the only people he loves: his beautiful and fragile mother, Elly; his gifted sister, Autumn; and his innocent, beatific brother, Percy. In the end, only Lyle can determine the legacy his family’s tragedy will hold . . . Written with abiding compassion and profound wisdom, and imbued with a luminous grace that is as haunting as it is precisely controlled, Mercy Among the Children is epic storytelling at its absolute finest, populated with richly drawn characters who walk off the pages and into history. With a never-failing elegance and humane moral vision that call to mind Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy, David Adams Richards has crafted a magnificent, heartbreaking novel whose towering ambition is matched only by the level of its achievement. Winner of the Giller Prize Praise for Mercy Among Children “One of the great novels of our time.” —Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Michief “Richards is a stunning storyteller, a cross between Thomas Hardy and Russell Banks.” —Globe and Mail “One of the most distinct and compelling voices in contemporary literature.” —Toronto Star “Stark and affecting. . . . Richards shows how powerfully the novel can operate as a mode of moral exploration, a fact sometimes forgotten in the age of postmodern irony.” —Publishers Weekly “Harrowing and powerful.” —Library Journal

A thrilling, revelatory collection from one of the most provocative and original literary voices in Canada today. David Adams Richards is one of Canada's greatest writers, his place in the pantheon ensured by seventeen novels of consistent power and vision. He is also the author of four marvelous non-fiction ruminations on religious faith, hockey, hunting and fishing and their roles in his and the nation's identities. His loyal readers may feel they know him well. But they also know that this is a writer who never fails to surprise. This new collection of essays--his first in a quarter-century--is rich with revelations and insights, deepening our appreciation for this major talent and offering a provoking thought on every page. Murder is one of David's great subjects. In his novels, in the Russian classics he loves and in his life, murder has been a shaping force. The title of this volume refers to a suite of essays on the subject: a hitchhiker with whom David strikes up an unnerving philosophical debate; the killers of the Miramichi and their victims; Caligula; the villains of Russian literature; and, forever in David's mind as he examines this grim topic, the self-deception involved in the allure of evil. But in this wide-ranging collection there is much to delight in too: married love; family; travel; the beauty of the natural world; even Wayne Gretzky is invited to the party. David's principled outlook and spirituality inform his thinking thoroughout. And he draws many of his favourite writers into the discussion--from Tolstoy to Dostoevsky, Mary Shelley to Alden Nowlan--revelling in their work, as we do in David's, as sources of ideas, inspiration and sheer literary pleasure. As a considerable bonus, the book also contains at its midpoint a literary debut: a slim but substantial collection of David's poetry.

And Other Essays

Murder

Abandoned by her pre-Depression community for marrying outside of the faith, Irish-Catholic Janie McCleary supports her family by opening one of North America's first movie theaters and achieving success that both furthers her ostracism and shapes the lives of her offspring. By the award-winning author of Mercy Among the Children. 25,000 first printing.

River of the Brokenhearted

From literary legend David Adams Richards comes the breathtaking final instalment of his epic Miramichi Trilogy. When John Delano is asked by the sister of Orville MacDurmot to investigate his violent death and the accusations of murder that haunted his final days, Delano embarks on a journey that will pull him deep into Miramichi's shadowy history and the pasts of those who conspired against him. Bullied as a child for his meagre upbringing and blindness in one eye, Orville broke from his humble roots to become an internationally renowned archeologist, a position those along the Miramichi treat with both pride and resentment. Not one to suffer fools gladly, Orville finds himself progressively at odds with the region's elite, who wish to use his eminence for their own gains and enlist him for their political causes. As resentments old and new fester, suspicion grows and a book titled Darkness increasingly seems the origin of a crime unlike anything the Miramichi has witnessed before, Orville finds his reputation--and his life--in danger. When the remains of a young woman and man are discovered on a rugged shoreline where Orville has been working on an archeological dig, his enemies finally see their opportunity to destroy him. In a saga crossing decades, continents and generations, yet rooted in the richly conceived world of Richards' Miramichi, Darkness explores the shocking lengths we travel to fulfill personal ambition, and the tragic price we pay to defend our moral principles.

Darkness

The Terris are engaging people, but they are a family in collapse. Alcoholism, drugs, and loveless sex have reduced them to a petty and wasted bunch. Worse, they typify aspects of the larger community besieged by financial woes and by creeping economic and cultural Americanization. What David Adams Richards accomplishes is no mean feat: his characters are at times vicious, sleazy, and even outright dim, yet he manages to entitle them to the interest and sympathy of the reader. Even more now than at its first publication in 1981, Lives of Short Duration's sharp, essential insights have significance for readers seeking to understand the modern Canadian predicament. From the Paperback edition.

Lives of Short Duration

Press baron, entrepreneur, art collector, and wartime minister in Churchill's cabinet, Max Aitken was a colonial Canadian extraordinaire. Rising from a hardscrabble childhood in New Brunswick, he became a millionaire at age 25, earned the title of Lord Beaverbrook at 38, and by age 40 was the most influential newspaperman in the world. Fiercely loyal to the British Empire, he was nonetheless patronized by London's upper class, whose country he worked tirelessly to protect during World War II. David Adams Richards, one of Canada's preeminent novelists, celebrates Beaverbrook's heroic achievements in this perceptive interpretive biography.

Lord Beaverbrook

Set in a small town in New Brunswick, this intricate, multi-layered novel revolves around the hapless Shackle family. There is Garth, a promising hockey player whose career has been destroyed; Vicki, his beautiful, self-destructive wife; and Garth’s brother Neil, a successful academic haunted by the life and family he has left behind. Then there is Peter Bathurst, a former Micmac leader desperate to stave off an investigation into his mishandling of band money. Peter’s only hope may be Vicki Shackle, and as the story of their lives unfolds and intersects over the course of a single day, events lead to the novel’s dramatic climax. Hope in the Desperate Hour is a riveting and unforgettable novel that brilliantly juxtaposes the world of the privileged elite with the reality of those to whom life has dealt very different cards.

Hope in the Desperate Hour

The masterful new novel from a Canadian literary legend at the height of his powers. John Delano is a broken man, seemingly at the end of everything: the end of his legendary but controversial career as a police officer; the end of his sad and difficult marria≥ the end of his years-long search for the truth of what happened to his missing son; the end of his fruitless quest for personal redemption; even, perhaps, the end of his life. Only one small thing keeps him going: his conviction that he has a final case to solve, centred around the disappearance years ago of a young boy placed in foster care in Saint John, New Brunswick. Following the delicate and convoluted thread of that case takes John to unexpected places: dangerously close to powerful civil servants hoarding damning secrets; to a Canadian humanitarian mission in Rwanda before and during the genocide; to New York and the compromised corridors of the United Nations; and deep into his own haunted past. With this new masterwork, David Adams Richards continues to astonish us, weaving familiar themes in fresh new ways. His people are still rooted in his beloved Miramichi region of New Brunswick, but his storytelling--as always, displaying his genius for plot and his extraordinary empathy for his flawed characters--has expanded to encompass the much wider world that his people traverse: the politically charged, intricately connected modern universe in all its richness, contradiction, devastation and little points of hope. In the end, what ties John Delano to every other unforgettable character in this compelling work is the shared search for principles to live by: as each person decides what those principles shall be, their fates inevitably and heartbreakingly intertwine.

Principles to Live By

Janie McCleary runs one of the first movie theatres in New Brunswick. A successful woman in a world of men, she is ostracized, a victim of double-dealing and overt violence. She trusts no one outside her family. Spanning generations, River of the Brokenhearted explores the life of this formidable woman, a pioneer before the age of feminism, and her legacy as it unfolds tragically in the lives of her son and grandchildren. Written with aching compassion and masterful sophistication, River of the Brokenhearted muses on the tyranny of memory and history, and peers into the hearts of these extraordinary characters. By the author of Mercy Among the Children.

What had happened, from those days until now? And why had it? And how had his life gone? And who was to blame? Or why did he think he had to blame anyone? Certainly he couldn’t even blame Mr. Roach, caught in the same turmoil as everyone believing half-truths in order to blame other people. These are the forlorn thoughts of Alex Chapman, the tragic anti-hero of David Adams Richards’ masterful novel The Lost Highway. An exploration of the philosophical contortions of which man is capable, the novel tracks the desperate journey of an eternally lost and orphaned child/man who has nearly squandered his frail birthright but might yet earn some degree of redemption. David Adams Richards’ The Lost Highway is a taut psychological thriller that goes far beyond the genre into the worlds of Leo Tolstoy, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, as well as classical Greek mythology, testing the very limits of humankind’s all too tenuous grasp on morality.

David Adams Richards

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