Past as Present
with Gwen Tuinman, Jack Wang and Linda McQuaig
Hosted by Susan Johnston
Lively, many-voiced, and replete with detail, Unrest is a great adventure and an impressive portrait of little-known settler life around Ottawa. Its characters will live on in your mind.”
Join us for an evening of conversation about compelling fiction that explores Canada’s history.
Unrest by Gwen Tuinman is set in 1836 Bytown. The lawless cesspool that will become the city of Ottawa is beginning to reek of more than just swamp water. Rife with squalor, corruption, and organized crime, class injustice divides the town more starkly than the canal that bisects it, cutting off its Irish poor—who are ready to fight back.
The Riveter by Jack Wang is set in 1942 Vancouver. Josiah Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to serve his country in the war against fascism, but Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard to find work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships.
The Road to Goderich by Linda McQuaig is set against the backdrop of the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. In rural Scotland in the 1830s, fifteen-year-old Callandra is devastated by her father’s unexpected death. To save her family from destitution, she reluctantly agrees to marry Norbert Scott. She faces more upheaval when her husband accepts a posting as a clergyman in the remote town of Goderich in Upper Canada.
Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
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