The Custodian of Paradise by Wayne Johnston$ 22.00 Help |
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 This product is Made in Canada - Product Number:ISBN - 10:0676978169 |
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Product DescriptionFormat: Trade PaperbackPublished: June 19, 2007 Publisher: Knopf Canada In his new book, The Custodian of Paradise, Johnston builds on the story he began in The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and gives us a riveting narrative with Sheilagh Fielding at its heart. At the beginning of the novel, Fielding — advancing on middle age, hobbled by disfigurement and personal demons — is headed for Loreburn, a deserted island off the south coast of Newfoundland. She has chosen the island after an extensive search through census records, which confirmed that it once had a small town of which only boarded-up houses remain; it is now home to not a single soul. Fielding has no idea what to expect of Loreburn, yet she brings two enormous trunks with her and plans for an extended stay. Fielding has borne a lifetime of estrangement and heartbreak by setting herself apart from the rest of St. John’s society, and by relying on her eccentricity and wit to keep others at bay. By cultivating her isolation, she’s been able to escape the world’s “swirling surfeit of detail” and write, both in her journals and for the Telegram. And by skirting Prohibition laws, she’s also been able to dull the pain of her early years. Fielding’s mother had deserted her husband and only child when Fielding was just six years old, with no explanation. Unable to figure out why a woman would abandon her child, her father was left tormented by the question of Fielding’s paternity. She is six-foot-three and nothing at all like him . . . can she possibly be his child? And when Fielding fell briefly and terribly in love as a teenager, she was left, ultimately, more alone than ever. And alone she remains — that is, except for the mysterious stranger she calls her Provider, who has shadowed her ever since she made a mysterious pilgrimage to her mother’s house in New York City more than two decades earlier. Gradually, we learn what has brought her to this wild island. With The Custodian of Paradise, Wayne Johnston continues his masterful exploration of life in pre-Confederation Newfoundland, and of the powerful forces that give rise to great character — individualism, circumstance, and secrecy; memory, loss, and regret. About the Author Wayne Johnston was born in Newfoundland in 1958 and grew up in Goulds, a small community a few miles south of St. John’s. When he was a boy, he couldn’t imagine a world beyond the island. "The only outside world I ever saw was on television, and I didn’t really even believe that world existed." At the time, people were still divided over entering Confederation with Canada, which had happened only in 1949. Find out why we love this member... |
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