The Matter with Morris (HarperCollins Canada)

When Morris Schutt, a prominent newspaper columnist, surveys his life over the past year, he sees disaster everywhere. His son has just been killed in Afghanistan, and his newspaper has put him on indefinite leave; his psychiatrist wife, Lucille, seems headed for the door; he is strongly attracted to Ursula, the wife of a dairy farmer from Minnesota; and his daughter appears to be having an affair with one of her professors. What is a thinking man to do but turn to Cicero and Plato and Socrates in search of the truth? Or better still, call one of those discreet “dating services” in search of happiness? But happiness, as Morris discovers, is not that easy to find.

David Bergen won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel The Time in Between. The work also won the McNally Robinson Award of the Year and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, had its film rights sold to Crescent Entertainment and was published around the world. He is the author of four other novels: The Retreat, winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction; The Case of Lena S., winner of the Carol Shields Award; See the Child, which The Globe and Mail compared to the work of Richard Ford and John Updike; and A Year of Lesser, winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and a New York Times Notable Book. The recent winner of the Writers’ Trust Award for a writer in mid-career, David Bergen lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This event is co-presented by The Walrus Magazine as part of their Walrus Reads series.