Thomas Wharton

Winner of: The Banff Grand National Prize for Literature The Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book Award The Commonwealth Best First Novel Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region) At a quarter past three in the afternoon, on August 17, 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slipped on the ice of Acturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slid into a crevasse . . . Nearly sixty feet below the surface, Byrne is wedged upside down between the narrowing walls of a chasm, fighting his desire to sleep. The ice in front of him is lit with a pale blue-green radiance. There, embedded in he pure, antediluvian glacier, Byrne sees something that will inextricably link him to the vast bed of ice, and the people who inhabit this strange corner of the world. In this moment, his life becomes a quest to uncover the mystery of the icefield that almost became his tomb. Within the deceptively simple framework of a tourist guidebook, Icefields takes a breathtaking, imaginative look at the human spirit, loss, myth, and elusive truths. Here is an impressive literary landscape, and an expedition unlike any you have ever experienced.

Icefields

In 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slips on the ice of the Arcturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slides into a crevasse, wedged upside down nearly sixty feet below the surface. As he fights losing consciousness, a stray beam of sunlight illuminates the ice in front of him and Byrne sees something in the blue-green radiance that will forever link him to the ancient glacier. In this moment, his life's purpose becomes uncovering the mystery of the icefield that almost was his tomb. Along the way, he encounters similarly fixated individuals, each immersed in their own quest: the healer and storyteller Sara; the bohemian travel writer Freya Becker; the entrepreneur Trask; the poet Hal Rowan; and Elspeth, greenhouse keeper and Byrne's lover. First published in 1995, Wharton's Icefields is an astonishing historical novel set in a mesmerizing literary landscape, one that is constantly being altered by the surging and retreating glacier and unpredictable weather. Here--where characters are pulled into deep chasms of ice as well as the stories and histories they tell one another--is a vivid, daring, and crisply written book that reveals the human spirit, loss, myth, and elusive truths. This updated Landmark Edition includes an author interview with Smaro Kamboureli and an Afterword by award-winning writer Suzette Mayr.

Landmark Edition

Nicholas Flood, an unassuming eighteenth-century London printer, specializes in novelty books -- books that nestle into one another, books comprised of one spare sentence, books that emit the sounds of crashing waves. When his work captures the attention of an eccentric Slovakian count, Flood is summoned to a faraway castle -- a moving labyrinth that embodies the count's obsession with puzzles -- where he is commissioned to create the infinite book, the ultimate never-ending story. Probing the nature of books, the human thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality, Salamander careens through myth and metaphor as Flood travels the globe in search of materials for the elusive book without end.

Salamander

A groundbreaking, deeply affecting work of environmental literary suspense for fans of Cloud Atlas, The Overstory, and Station Eleven. The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It's also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed "the Park." Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed. Claire Foley ran away from River Meadows as a teenager and now traffics in endangered wildlife. As Alex and Michio search for Amery, Claire arrives in an island nation under threat of environmental catastrophe to retrieve her greatest prize yet, only to find herself facing a life-altering choice. And, finally, in a future as distant as myth, a flock of birds sets out on a dangerous journey to prevent the extinction of their ancient enemy, humanity. The account they hand down is an Epic of Gilgamesh for our times, illuminating the wisdom of nature and our flawed stewardship of the planet. As sweeping in scope as a world of its own, The Book of Rain is a novel of epic reach, beautifully multi-layered, haunting and profound.

The Book of Rain

On an expedition in the Canadian Rockies at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr Edward Byrne slips and falls almost 60 feet into a crevasse on the Arcturus Glacier. While trapped, hanging upside down and wary that the slightest movement could send him plunging deeper into the abyss, Byrne notices a mysterious winged figure embedded in the ice wall. The vision shakes his sanity, and after his recovery continues to haunt him until he abandons his fiancee and his medical practice in England and returns to a lonely vigil in a shack near the spot on the ice where he almost lost his life. His spirit trapped, he seeks the truth by questioning closely the strange characters that cross his path and meticulously recording the advance and decline of the myths and legends of an early settlement and is transformed by the coming of the railroad into a thriving tourist centre - with an impact as far away as the battlefields for the First World War.

A Bibliography Of Imaginary Books

The Logogryph

In this, the conclusion to the sweeping Perilous Realm trilogy, Will and Rowen journey through the Shadow Realm--a wasteland of deserted cities and abandoned belongings--to rescue Rowen's grandfather, the loremaster Nicholas Pendrake, and confront the evil Malabron once and for all. As they travel, they encounter blood-sucking harrowers and wraith-like fetches, and they must also confront the reality that their dear friend Shade is returning to his wolf-life state and will soon pose a grave threat to them both. And they have no time to waste, for war looms back in Fable, where the dastardly Ammon Brax has installed himself as Marshall and has plans to claim the city for himself. What will become of Shade, Pendrake, and the people of Fable? Will Rowen and Will be able to find Malabron at the Tree of Story and break his wicked spell before it's too late?

The Tree of Story

When Will, a rebellious teen, stumbles from the present into the realm where stories come from, he learns he has a mission concerning the evil Malabron and, aided by some of the story folk, he faces a host of perils while seeking the gateless gate that will take him home.

The shadow of Malabron

Gabriele Gockel

Roman

Der Klang des Schnees

Robin had no idea that a trip to Rutherford House with her grandma would lead to an adventure with a time-travelling moose! Come with Robin and Rutherford as they journey through Edmonton's history, from the ice age to the present day, and discover how our city has changed through time. Visit such sites as Rutherford House, the Alberta Legislature, Strathcona Library, Princess Theatre, the High Level Bridge and Garneau Theatre.

Rutherford the Time-travelling Moose

One boy, a wolf and a perilous journey: a fantasy that weaves the fabric of well-loved stories into an epic adventure.

The Shadow of Malabron

Calling to mind the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay in its sweeping invention, The Fathomless Fire, the second book in the breathtaking Perilous Realm trilogy, is now available in paperback! Having returned from his exhilarating adventure in the Perilous Realm, Will Lightfoot is safely back at home with his family, going through the motions of an ordinary life. But he is dogged by feelings of restlessness and desperate to reconnect with his friend Rowen, a girl from the city of Fable. It's not long before he obeys the irresistible pull to return and resume his quest. But he is shocked to discover that in the time he's been away, he has become a legend to the people of Fable. Greeted as a returning hero, Will soon has to test his mettle. Can he rescue Rowen from the clutches of Angel, the dreaded servant of the evil Malabron? Or will Rowen, and all of Fable, be swept up in Malabron's wicked scheme?

The Fathomless Fire

Hē Salamandra

A novel of letters. A book of wonders. A story of love, loss, and life on Earth. It begins in the pre-internet age with a letter left at the front desk of a hotel in Iceland. The recipient, Martha Geddes, is a neophyte journalist from New York, the sender, James Weaver, a young ecologist from Vancouver. Over the years, while James roams the world and Martha stays close to home, they share their love for the oddities, surprises, and marvels of nature through letters. When tragedy occurs, words from a distance may not be enough to help a friend find the way back from the darkness. A compelling historical fiction. A romance unlike any you've read before. A love letter to the planet. Every Blade of Grass takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through grief and loss to a reawakening to life. A life-affirming new novel from the best-selling author of Icefields, Salamander, and the Perilous Realm Trilogy.

Thomas Wharton

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