When Scarlett O'Toole wrote the stage play "Perkins' Ghost" she had hoped that it would bolster the falling spirits of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, which was suffering from the effects of a closed paper mill, declining numbers of tourists and a generally flat economy. The play was to open at the Astor Theatre in the height of the hustle and bustle of Liverpool's annual summer festival, Privateer Days, drawing great crowds to the waterfront with a midway, sideshows, fast foods, ice-cream stands, music tents and the Kings Orange Rangers performing a military re-enactment. The play-within-the-novel,...