New Canadian Library
3 total works
Widely considered one of Canada's first postmodern novels, marking the start of contemporary writing in the country, The Double Hook is now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.
In spare, allusive prose, Sheila Watson charts the destiny of a small, tightly knit community nestled in the BC Interior. Here, among the hills of Cariboo country, men and women are caught upon the double hook of existence, unaware that the flight from danger and the search for glory are both part of the same journey. In Watson's compelling novel, cruelty and kindness, betrayal and faith shape a pattern of enduring significance.
In spare, allusive prose, Sheila Watson charts the destiny of a small, tightly knit community nestled in the BC Interior. Here, among the hills of Cariboo country, men and women are caught upon the double hook of existence, unaware that the flight from danger and the search for glory are both part of the same journey. In Watson's compelling novel, cruelty and kindness, betrayal and faith shape a pattern of enduring significance.
When Stella, fresh from her life in the city, arrives to take up her first teaching post in the one-room schoolhouse in a little frontier settlement in the British Columbia interior, she soon finds herself immersed in the stories she is told. Although an outsider in their midst, she sees that for those who dwell in this tiny community, life follows its destined course, amid conditions of extraordinary Depression-era hardship.
This small collection of stories that were published between 1938 and 1980 includes a remarkable narrative range, from the closely observed realism of “Rough Answer,” Sheila Watson’s first story, through four stories which represent members of the family of Sophocles’ Oedipus as contemporary and naturalized, to the ritualized mystery of “And the Four Animals.” A Father’s Kingdom is an original New Canadian Library collection.