In the second volume of The New Age, Matt Goderich is studying art history at the University of Toronto. His research leads him to the mythical town of Stoverville, where he meets his future wife and her mother, a visionary painter.

Hugh Hood was born in Toronto in 1928 and studied at the University of Toronto, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1955. He worked as a university teacher for over forty years -- over thirty of those years spent at the Universit? de Montr?al. He was married to painter and printmaker Noreen Mallory and had four children. He died in Montreal in August of 2000.

Hood wrote 32 books, amongst them novels, collections of stories and essays, an art book, and a book of sports journalism. His most extended project, begun in 1975 and occupying him right up until the time of his death, was a twelve volume roman fleuve entitled The New Age / Le nouveau si?cle. The last book in this series, Near Water, was published by Anansi in 2000.

Hugh Hood's profile page

“The sensibility, the fine intelligence poking and probing into the life of homo canadensis during the 1950s is so acute, so accurate that I feel as if I and the people I know had all been minutely examined.” —Quill & Quire