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Liam Durcan & Kevin Patterson -- Afternoon Book Chat

Monday Sep 26 2016 2:30 pm, Winnipeg, Grant Park in the Atrium
NOTE: This event has already taken place. Please visit this page to see our upcoming events.

THIN AIR Afternoon Book Chat.

Two accomplished novelists—who also happen to be doctors—write of trauma and recovery from Quebec country roads to Afghanistan battlegrounds.

Pick up a tea or coffee from the café, then settle in at the tables in the Atrium. Books available—of course!

Liam Durcan is the author of the short story collection A Short Journey by Car, and the novel García’s Heart, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and recipient of the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award. Born in Winnipeg, he now lives in Montreal, Quebec, where he is a neurologist at McGill University. His latest novel, The Measure of Darkness (Bellevue Literary Press), a portrait of a hemispatial brain injury from a patient’s perspective, is a gripping journey into the depths of a fractured mind and an exploration into what causes us to make the life decisions we do.

Kevin Patterson grew up in Manitoba and put himself through medical school by joining the Canadian army. Now a specialist in internal medicine, he practices in the Arctic and on the coast of British Columbia. His first book, The Water in Between, was a New York Times Notable Book. Country of Cold, his debut short fiction collection, won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in 2003, as well as the inaugural City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. His latest novel, News from the Red Desert (Random House Canada), is an unsettling and suspenseful depiction of the Afghanistan war. He lives on Salt Spring Island, BC.

See:

The Measure of Darkness

- Liam Durcan

Trade paperback $25.95
Reader Reward Price: $23.36

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction Winner
National Reading Group Month "Great Group Reads" selection

"A deft exploration of the heart and mind that offers the pathos of a Sam Shepard play nested within the unreliable storytelling of Christopher Nolan's Memento." --Kirkus Reviews

Martin, an acclaimed architect, emerges from a coma after a roadside accident to find his world transformed: not only has the commission of a lifetime been taken from him, but his injury has left him with neglect syndrome, a loss of spatial awareness that has rendered him unfit to practice and unable to recognize the extent of his illness. Despite support from his formerly estranged brother and two grown daughters, his paranoia builds, alienating those closest to him. His only solace is found in the parallels he draws between himself and gifted Soviet-era architect Konstantin Melnikov, who survived Stalin's disfavor by retreating into obscurity. As Martin retraces Melnikov's life and his own fateful decisions, he becomes increasingly unsettled, until the discovery of the harrowing truth about the night of his accident hurtles him toward a deadly confrontation.

A gripping journey into the depths of a fractured mind, The Measure of Darkness is ultimately a resonant tale of resilience and healing.

Liam Durcan is the author of García's Heart, winner of the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award. He lives in Montreal, Quebec, where he works as a neurologist at McGill University.