One Brother Shy
$19.95
| Title | Range | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Trade Discount | 5 + | 25% |
- Description
- Additional information
Description
From the two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour: a story about a man tormented by an event from his youth, and the journey he finds himself on to heal and to learn who he is.
Few people know the real Alex MacAskill. Most of the world sees a painfully and chronically shy software engineer in his mid-20s, soft-spoken, a bit of a loner, and someone easy to escape notice wherever possible–and that’s just the way Alex wants it. Because no matter how many years have passed, the incident known only as “Gabriel” in the MacAskill family is something that still haunts him.
But when his mother, one of the only people in the world who Alex felt comfortable as himself around, dies after a long illness, he suddenly has no choice but to face the very thing that he’s been avoiding since that night in high school. In an instant, Alex finds himself trying to piece together the mystery of his identity, and on a search for parts of his family he never knew existed–a search that takes him from Ottawa to London to Moscow, encountering along the way echoes of the Cold War, painful memories from his past, and even the 1972 Russian hockey team–a search that ultimately helps Alex discover himself.
With his trademark wit and captivating storytelling, Terry Fallis has written a novel unlike any of his others. One Brother Shy is at once poignant and humorous, heartbreaking and heartwarming, and readers will not soon forget Alex MacAskill. “A two-for-one flight of invention, full of hilarious one-liners. Terry Fallis has written another fast-paced, incisive, and wry novel that doesn’t shy away from the enjoyably genuine and the genuinely human.” —Gary Barwin, author of Yiddish for Pirates and Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted
“One Brother Shy is funny, heartbreaking, and sensitive, just like its reluctant semi-hero, Alex MacAskill. Terry Fallis has worked his magic again in this story of a young man battered by the fates and healed by his own courage and the kindness of an unlikely assortment of people. One Brother Shy is life-affirming and an absolute joy to read.” —Susan Juby, author of Republic of Dirt
“Mark Twain once observed that the ‘secret source of humour is not joy but sorrow.’ In One Brother Shy, Terry Fallis locates this secret source in a very moving yet often funny story about a young man’s search for lost family, lost identity, lost confidence and lost time. The result is a wonderful, powerful tale of pain and redemption.” —Joseph Kertes, author of The Afterlife of Stars
“One Brother Shy is another great example of the great gift of Terry Fallis: to make us laugh just enough that we don’t realize that we’re also learning. My only complaint with his novels is that he can’t write them as quickly as I can devour them.” —Steve Patterson, comedian and author of Dad Up!“An ode to one of the most unique emotional bonds a human can experience—the ineffable connection shared by identical twins.” —Toronto Star
“[One Brother Shy] follows software engineer Alex MacAskill who must face a humiliating incident from his past after his mother dies. It sounds depressing, but, like Fallis’ other books, is filled with humour and warmth.” —CBC books
“It’s always a thrill to crack open a book and find places you know reflected in the pages. When this happens, it makes me feel as if I’m a player in the story unfolding before me. And so it was with Terry Fallises’ sixth novel, One Brother Shy. . .” —Ottawa Magazine TERRY FALLIS grew up in Toronto and earned an engineering degree from McMaster University. Drawn to politics at an early age, he worked for cabinet ministers at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa. His first novel, The Best Laid Plans, began as a podcast, then was self-published, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, was re-published by McClelland & Stewart to great reviews, was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC’s Canada Reads as “the essential Canadian novel of the decade,” and became a CBC Television series. His next two novels, The High Road and Up and Down were finalists for the Leacock Medal, and in 2015, he won the prize a second time, for his fourth book, No Relation. A skilled public speaker, Terry Fallis is also co-founder of the communications agency Thornley Fallis. He lives in Toronto with his wife and blogs at www.terryfallis.com. Follow @TerryFallis on Twitter. CA
Additional information
| Weight | 1 oz |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 1 × 5 × 8 in |
