The_Englishman's_Boy
1998 Shortlist

The Englishman’s Boy

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

1873. Under a full moon, two Assiniboine Indians rustle twenty horses from a group of sleeping white men, wolf hunters taking in their pelts to trade. This sets the scene for two parallel narratives. One is the haunting story of a young drifter known as ‘the Englishman’s boy’ who joins the wolf hunters en route north to Canada on the trail of the horse thieves. Vanderhaeghe’s rendering of the stark, dramatic beauty of the landscape becomes a perfect backdrop for vivid scenes of action, adventure and violence. The other story is set in 1920s Hollywood, where Harry Vincent, a struggling young hack writer in a movie studio, is plucked from obscurity by the enigmatic studio head, Damon Ira Chance. Vincent is enlisted to find the elusive old-time Western actor, Shorty McAdoo. Chance believes McAdoo will be able to provide him with the authentic material he needs to fulfil his ambition to make the big film about the American West. But Chance has a darker ambition and the story Vincent painfully extracts brings the two narratives together in a brutal climax. (from Waterstones)

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Guy
Vanderhaeghe

Guy Vanderhaeghe was born in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, in 1951.

He is the author of four novels, My Present Age (1984), Homesick (1989), co-winner of the City of Toronto Book Award, The Englishman’s Boy (1996), winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for The Giller Prize and the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and, most recently, The Last Crossing (2002), a long-time national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, and a regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. The Last Crossing was the winner of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2004. It was also a selection for the BBC’s television program Page Turners.

He is also the author of three collections of short stories, Man Descending (1982), winner of the Governor’s General’s Award and the Faber Prize in the U.K., The Trouble With Heroes (1983), and Things As They Are (1992).

Photo by Margaret Vanderhaeghe

Guy Vanderhaeghe was born in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, in 1951.

He is the author of four novels, My Present Age (1984), Homesick (1989), co-winner of the City of Toronto Book Award, The Englishman’s Boy (1996), winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for The Giller Prize and the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and, most recently, The Last Crossing (2002), a long-time national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, and a regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. The Last Crossing was the winner of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2004. It was also a selection for the BBC’s television program Page Turners.

He is also the author of three collections of short stories, Man Descending (1982), winner of the Governor’s General’s Award and the Faber Prize in the U.K., The Trouble With Heroes (1983), and Things As They Are (1992).

Photo by Margaret Vanderhaeghe

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
14/09/1996
Country
Canada
Original Language
English
Publisher
McClelland & Stewart, Doubleday, Anchor Books, Picador

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