Galore - Michael Crummey [0]
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’
Prize for Best Book (Canada and the Caribbean)
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association
Literary Award for Fiction
Finalist for the Governor General’s
Literary Award for Fiction
Finalist for the Thomas Head Raddall
Atlantic Book Award
Finalist for the Winterset Award
Finalist for the Canadian Booksellers Association
Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year
Finalist for the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award
A Sun Media Book of the Decade
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2009 IN:
The Globe and Mail
National Post
Winnipeg Free Press
Amazon.ca
Georgia Straight
Hour.ca (Montreal)
“Michael Crummey’s Galore is a fabulous, fable-filled ball of yarns such as I’ve never encountered before. Tall but plausible tales, odd, eccentric but weirdly familiar characters, dialogue straight out of the mouths of outport Newfoundlanders, historicized fiction, fictionalized history—it has, as its title suggests, a superabundance of good things. This is art, but not art full of solemn, self-importance. Galore is artfully, and seriously, entertaining.”
—Wayne Johnston, author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
“Michael Crummey is a passionate storyteller. His world is intensely imagined and starkly real. Life leaps off the pages of Galore.”
—Jane Mendelsohn, author of I Was Amelia Earhart and American Music
“[Crummey’s] two previous novels, River Thieves and The Wreckage, were critical successes and national best sellers, and deservedly so. They were very good books and I enjoyed them immensely. Galore blows them out of the water.… A book that will live in the minds of readers long after they’ve turned the final page.… Crummey is without a doubt one of Canada’s finest writers.… The Newfoundland that exists in my imagination—the one that may not be real and if it ever was real likely doesn’t exist today—smells and tastes and sounds like Galore.”
—Steven Galloway in The Globe and Mail
“Magical and ribald … downright intoxicating … an epic tale sprawling across a century.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“A gorgeous and mysterious whale of a book—part multigenerational love story, part riff on the Bible, and part tall tale. Spanning several generations in a remote Newfoundland outport, this story is bursting with fantastical events, colorful characters, and delicious dialogue. An unforgettable journey.”
—Governor General’s Literary Award jury citation
“Rich, abundant, and satisfying as its title suggests.… Crummey forges unforgettable characters and fashions spectacular, riveting stories.… Crummey brilliantly evokes the world of this book, conjuring the claustrophobic isolation of the community—the smells and textures of the place, the harsh climate and the hardness of the people who endure it.… Galore is remarkable.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
“One of Newfoundland’s great storytellers.… This novel has the same lushness as One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez.… Deep and intricately woven.”
—Chronicle Herald (Halifax)
“Crummey’s powers of storytelling and evocation are considerable. [Galore is] rich in folklore, folk songs, curses, spells, and superstition.”
—Vancouver Sun
“Newfoundland and Labrador, situated as it is on the far edge of the country, often seems like another world entirely, and that’s never been truer than in Galore: There are spells and resurrections, curses and ghosts, all of which hold very real places in the history of that province.”
—Edmonton Journal
“Galore is an absolute pleasure. In Crummey’s capable hands, the setting breeds magic, and the individuals that populate its rugged terrain are nuanced and real, as gentle as they are harsh, as hateful as they are loving. Each unfolding generation flows into the next in a complex narrative that feels effortless, yet is woven so tightly that the magnificent artistry of its creator cannot be ignored.”
—The Walrus
“Fantastic … masterful … Reading any good book a second time lets you in on some of its more craftily