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list price: $21.99
edition:Paperback
also available: eBook
category: Fiction
published: Sep 2020
ISBN:9781459745889
publisher: Dundurn Press

Boy

by Brent van Staalduinen

tagged: coming of age, magical realism, literary
Description

WINNER of the Kerry Schooley Book Award

A story as magical as it is real, that asks, if you could stop and restart time for a second chance, would you?

Boy’s final year of high school is unraveling. Fast. He had it all worked out, from crushing his final exams to military school to a career in the air force. But his family’s tragic past and its complicated present have caught up to him, and his marks are slipping, jeopardizing all of his plans.

When Boy befriends Mara, a homeless man who can seemingly stop and restart time at will, he has to weigh his family’s needs and his own conscience against the potential contained within Mara’s mysterious and powerful gift. And he soon realizes the hardest truths about time: the past can’t be undone, memories are as fragile as moments, and the future rarely turns out like we think it will.

About the Author

Brent van Staalduinen is the author of the novel Saints, Unexpected. He is the winner of the Bristol Short Story Prize, Fiddlehead’s Best Short Fiction Award, and the Lush Triumphant Literary Award. Brent lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Contributor Notes

Brent van Staalduinen is the author of the novel Saints, Unexpected. He is the winner of the Bristol Short Story Prize, Fiddlehead’s Best Short Fiction Award, and the Lush Triumphant Literary Award. Brent lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Awards
  • Winner, Hamilton Literary Awards, the Kerry Schooley Book Award
Editorial Reviews

Depicts the city of Hamilton as an inherently mystical place… Boy offers readers a poignant and powerful story that captures a transformative glimpse of this city through the lens of both tragedy and mystery.

— Beyond James

The novel is inarguably well written... the characters, complex.

— Booklist

Powerful and moving, it engages the reader with the challenge of ideas, expressed through character, choice and action.

— Hamilton Spectator

A mesmerizing coming of age story that manages to be both magical and intensely real. Boy takes readers on a journey of personal growth in the face of at-times frightening and mysterious obstacles. Pressures in Boy’s life multiply. His family and friends aren’t always there to be relied upon. His plans for the future are darkened with doubt. But for all the very real challenges — as well as those that seem to emerge from a shadowy world beyond — Boy finds always the dignity, the essential decency he needs to continue.

— Timothy Taylor, author of The Rule of Stephens

Boy is evocative and heartfelt, containing a spark of magic and an achingly real protagonist.

— Ellen Keith, author of The Dutch Wife

Exquisite … Boy is a perfectly compelling protagonist.

— Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking

The reflective writing is well matched to a protagonist who is so shocked by life that his story seems surreal ... Anyone who is struggling to cope with family traumas or is grieving the loss of a sibling or best friend will find solace in this deeply nuanced story about a teenager who strives to succeed and be kind, no matter what.

— Young Adulting

Sensitive and unusual book

— Hamilton Review of Books

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