Hides is a novel of family and politics that distinguishes itself through its careful intermingling of seriousness and comedy, and its surreal but eerily plausible setting.
As wildfires rage across the country and another federal election looms, four friends convene for a wilderness hunting trip in northwestern Newfoundland to commemorate the death of one of their sons, killed in a mass shooting in Calgary the year before. Hides traces the emotional ruptures following this violent, untimely death, along with the tensions of old friendships and father-son relationships marred by loss, betrayal, and a pervasive political and environmental disenchantment.
"Hides is raucous, tender, sly, and as rich and deep as a forest. Helmed by an unforgettable protagonist who knows so much (while hilariously understanding so little), I was gripped from the first page by the unexpected gentleness in this artful and funny novel, and moved by its unexpected turns on grief, and the bonds of family and friendship. An unforgettable work by a superb writer."
“Guns and grief haunt this debut novel, linking a shooting on a Calgary train and a hunting trip for caribou at a strange castle in Newfoundland. The book is about grief and loss, yet is oddly funny, the razor-sharp prose like some outport lovechild of DeLillo and Nabokov. Hides is a little creepy and very impressive.”
"On the edge of a failing world, four characters come together to see what remains, and what can be salvaged. Rod Moody-Corbett has written a book that seems to simultaneously inhabit our present and our future. The writing in Hides seethes and crackles with energy—tough, heartfelt, funny, and sarcastic in all the necessary places."