Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

Billy is a former teen pop starlet who suffers from severe panic attacks; Josh is a paramedic whose ability to patch up injured patients parallels his inability to repair his own emotional damages; and Amy is a rich kid trying to live the Bohemian indie girl life while dealing with her first broken heart.

Dora Rare is an apprentice midwife in rural Nova Scotia during the first years of World War One. When medical doctor Gilbert Thomas comes to town promising fast, painless childbirth, Rare must fight to preserve the birthing traditions and women’s wisdom that’s been passed down to her.

Set in an exclusive Ottawa private school, the novel tells the story of a love triangle. Noel is drawn to Fall, one off the few female students, but she’s more interested in Julius. When Noel and Julius become roommates, the situation becomes more complicated. Guilt, memory and confused identity are topics explored along the way.

Like Ming and others in the novel, Sandor Hunyadi’s fierce battle for “success” in Canada causes conflict between his fierce ambition and the philosophic ideals of his family and culture. The novel explores the differences between the struggling society of immigrant Hungarians and the prosperous English speaking world to which Sandor yearns to belong.

The novel opens at Doc Hunter’s retirement party. He has spent his career in Upward, Saskatchewan and over the years of seeing patients, he’s gained an insight into the townspeople and the challenges they face at the mid-point of the 20th century on the Canadian prairies.

Like Fitz, David Pace is a man who should have everything going for him. When he comes down with a rare sleep disorder, however, his life begins to unravel. Fueled by a steady mix of pharmaceuticals, Pace’s desperate quest to get free of his fog pushes him towards the very extremes of human behaviour. As he takes ever greater risks and makes ever more destructive choices his sense of who is begins to slip away.