André Alexis, Steven Galloway, Andrew O'Hagan

André Alexis’s internationally acclaimed debut novel, Childhood, was the winner of both the Trillium Book Award and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh and Ascension. He teaches creative writing at UBC and SFU, and lives with his wife and two young daughters in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Set in 1980s Ottawa and at a monastery in the Tuscan countryside, Asylum follows the lives of a small group of people whose stories become inextricably linked.

Set in a small Scottish parish in a post-industrial town, an English priest with secrets in his past becomes stalked by the fear of scandal, class hatred, and lost ideals. After his takeover of the parish, not everyone is prepared to accept Father David Anderton, but he befriends two troubled young students, Mark and Lisa. Their relationship subsequently leads to the book’s climax, as Father David finds himself facing accusations of abuse. In this riveting novel Andrew O’Hagan’s brilliant writing leads us into a story of art, politics, love and faith.

In a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, a cellist watches from a window as a shell lands in a bread line killing 22 people. Despite the constant danger of mortar fire, he vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albioni’s Adagio once a day for each of the 22 victims.