Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143013165 ISBN 13: 9780143013167

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2002

Across thousands of miles, the Canadian population clusters like loosely strung beads on the thread of the 49th parallel. This is truly Canada—a vast stretch of land and a bounty of small towns. In Welcome Home, Stuart McLean takes us on a heartwarming journey from one coast to the other to visit these small yet vibrant places and meet their remarkable citizens.

We visit Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, an old-fashioned "cow town"; Dresden, Ontario, once a destination for escaped slaves using the Underground Railroad; St-Jean-de-Matha, Quebec, where the worldÕs strongest man is buried; and Foxwarren, Manitoba, a quintessential hockey town. We wander along Main Street in Sackville, New Brunswick; explore Nakusp, B.C., which may have been the home of an illegitimate child of royalty; and watch the icebergs float by in Ferryland, Newfoundland.

Each town Stuart visits tells us a little about Canada's rich and often forgotten history and a lot about who Canadians are today. With a storyteller's eye for detail and an effervescent sense of humour, Stuart McLean introduces us to seven truly wonderful places and dozens of extraordinary people.

About the Author:

STUART McLEAN writes and hosts the popular CBC Radio show The Vinyl Cafe. Over one million people around the world tune in to the show every week. He is the author of many bestselling and award-winning books, including eight collections of Vinyl Cafe stories.

Review:

“Welcome Home is a faithful and often moving depiction of a way of life that once formed the soul of Canadian society.... What McLean finds in those widely scattered towns is a common thread, making Welcome Home one of the best arguments for national unity yet delivered.... Consistently fascinating and perceptive...an object lesson in the art of conversation.” - Maclean’s

“McLean’s world shines brightly; he sees and records the numinous in the prosaic.... He sees what sparkles in the ordinary, and he celebrates the common stuff of which most of our lives are made of.” - The Edmonton Journal

“This is an entirely delightful book, written by the only person I’ve ever heard send Peter Gzowski into helpless, schoolboy fits of giggling, and it deserves a place on every bookshelf in every home.” - Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal

“As he wanders from town to town...McLean encounters people who, more than Brian Adams, John Candy or Wayne Gretzky, define what it means to be Canadian.... Welcome Home is both a welcome and badly needed addition to Canadian literature.” - Calgary Herald

“Stuart McLean’s Welcome Home, a celebration of Canada’s small-town complexion, is like a tonic for our national ills...as penetrating as the wind on a cold prairie day.” - Vancouver Sun

“Stuart McLean’s Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada is a big, furry, friendly, Labrador retriever of a book.... I can’t remember coming across such a likeable animal in years.” - Montreal Gazette

“McLean has a whimsical delight in the extraordinary commonplaces of life.... His stories can’t help but kindle a desire to do some personal exploration of this vast, silly, comfortable land, as soon as the snow is gone.” - Georgia Straight

“McLean’s eye for detail and his sympathy make the stories in the book come alive.... This is life in Canada today, delivered in McLean’s whimsical, tangential style. Few journalists are as adept at telling a story in such an entertaining way.... Welcome Home may be just the balm that helps rekindle passion for this great country.” - The Daily News (Halifax)

“Stuart McLean reminds us in his well written and entertaining new travelogue [that] there is a never-ending supply of fascinating people and places to discover...a tender and inspiring read.” - The Toronto Star

“I felt I was learning more about Canada as manifested in its human beings than I had from any other single recent book.... McLean has found something near the ideal travel book on Canada.” - Quill and Quire

“Colourful vignettes about ordinary people told by an extraordinarily gifted writer.” - Times Herald (Moose Jaw)

“You are apt to come away from Welcome Home with a renewed faith in the basic goodness of people, the soundness of the country and some enduring memories of special people who just happen to live in a small community.” - Evening Telegram (St. John’s)

“Welcome Home is a travel book with a difference. It goes right to the heart of a community, something that most travel books seldom do. Sympathetically written, casual in style, Welcome Home makes us realize that no matter where we live we are all folks at heart.” - Gleaner (Fredericton)

“In these days of media concentration on ‘hard news,’ celebrity biographies and royal scandals, it’s nice to have people like Stuart McLean to remind us about the human side of life.” - The Whitehorse Star

“People have compared McLean to Garrison Keillor, but...the name that comes to my mind is E.B. White and I don’t think a higher compliment can be paid to a writer of non-fiction.” - Canadian Authors Association