Consolation - Hardcover

Redhill, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434011797 ISBN 13: 9780434011797

Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

As he slips beneath the waves of Toronto's harbour, Professor David Hollis follows in death the man he pursued in the last months of his life, English apothecary J. G. Hallam. One hundred and fifty years earlier, Hallam had been sent by his father to open a shop in the New World, but when that business failed, he became a reluctant partner in a photography firm. In 1856, the company was offered the opportunity to work for the municipal government, and the bleak and ungainly young city took shape before Hallam's lens. But after presenting the photographs in England, Hallam's ship sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario and the strongbox holding the photographs was lost. The shoreline of the harbour has shifted dramatically over a century and a half, and David Hollis, driven in his pursuit of this important historical record, speculates that the sunken ship containing the photographs is in the landfill where the city's new Union Arena is to be built. With almost no one on his side but his daughter's fiance, John Lewis, Hallam presents his findings, which are met with howls of derision from his colleagues. Three months later, he's dead, and Lewis joins the grieving widow, Marianne, in a furtive, unsettling quest to vindicate her husband. Installed in a hotel overlooking the excavation site where the arena is to stand, they await the moment when a piece of the past reappears that might alleviate the anguish of these civic and private vanishings. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully told, Michael Redhill's haunting new book moves seamlessly between Toronto's past and present, depicting the way time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. "Consolation" evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of a beloved truly means.

About this title

About the Author

Poet, playwright and novelist Michael Redhill is the author of the acclaimed novel Martin Sloane - winner of a Commonwealth Writers' Prize - and the short-story collection Fidelity. He is also publisher and co-editor - with Michael Ondaatje - of the literary magazine Brick. His poetry collections include Asphodel and Light-Crossing. He lives and works in Toronto.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Michael Redhill Fidelity

Superb, brief, ambiguous glances at a life rich in emotional complexity The Times

'[A] superb collection of stories... At their most acute, and several are masterpieces of the form, these chamber dramas of rupture and shift bear comparison with the best of Raymond Carver and James Salter. Like theirs, Redhill's own fidelity to the pursuit of sometimes difficult truths is never in doubt.' Time Out

'Redhill packs a hell of a punch. As someone once remarked of Sonny Liston: "He hurts when he breathes on you".' Guardian

Martin Sloane

'It is rare to read a novel that pulses with such pleasure that you don't want it to end, but this is what Michael Redhill's debut delivers This is a structurally complex novel infused with charm, tenderness and exquisite humour.' Independent

'Redhill s mild prose is dense with powerful emotional insights. Like Martin s art, it inspires a feeling of stillness and calm, of looking down on things from above; while underneath rest layer upon layer of meaning, prompting reflection on the novel s images and understandings long after the last page is reached. The Times

Reading Martin Sloane made me feel melancholic, hopeful, amused, energized, enlightened, unnerved, touched, and finally grateful that occasionally a writer comes along who gets real life just right. New York Times

From the Inside Flap

As he slips beneath the waves of Toronto's harbour, Professor David Hollis follows in death the man he pursued in the last months of his life, English apothecary J.G. Hallam.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, Hallam had been sent by his father to open a shop in the New World, but when that business failed, he became a reluctant partner in a photography firm. In 1856, the company was offered the opportunity to work for the municipal government, and the bleak and ungainly young city took shape before Hallam's lens. But after presenting the photographs in England, Hallam's ship sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario and the strongbox holding the photographs was lost.

The shoreline of the harbour has shifted dramatically over a century and a half, and David Hollis, driven in his pursuit of this important historical record, speculates that the sunken ship containing the photographs is in the landfill where the city's new Union Arena is to be built. With almost no one on his side but his daughter's fiancé, John Lewis, Hallam presents his findings, which are met with howls of derision from his colleagues. Three months later, he's dead, and Lewis joins the grieving widow, Marianne, in a furtive, unsettling quest to vindicate her husband. Installed in a hotel overlooking the excavation site where the arena is to stand, they await the moment when a piece of the past reappears that might alleviate the anguish of these civic and private vanishings.

Exquisitely crafted and masterfully told, Michael Redhill's haunting new book moves seamlessly between Toronto's past and present, depicting the way time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. Consolation evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of a beloved truly means.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0434011797
• ISBN 13: 9780434011797
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 480