This work of fiction surrounds the life of one family, that of Tommy Belanger, and encompasses the trials and tribulations associated with living in a dysfunctional family in a rural pocket of Canada in the early 50s. The problems associated with poverty, isolation and alcohol addiction are revealed: child abuse, incest, bestiality and zoophilia. Tommy tells his life's story, from the time that he was five years old to his adulthood; of a life filled with death, loss and grief. When Tommy's Pa received a letter from his Uncle Fred, about a land of opportunity and black gold, the Manitoba...

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,...