Wayne Tefs is the Dead Man on a Bike in his posthumous follow-up memoir to Roller Coaster: A Cancer Journey. Diagnosed with a rare cancer in 1994, Tefs spent the next 20 years raising a family, writing acclaimed works of fictions, battling cancer, and cycling. Always cycling.

Brutally visceral in his approach, Tefs explains: "This book is about the wound, about how cancer sticks a knife in your side and says, There, do what you can. What are the options? You can fall over dead; whinge out your days; leave the knife to fester; yank it out and splash blood around; pretend the knife is not there; anaesthetize it; use it to wound others; rage. Attempt to ride it away on a bicycle."

And ride he does. Tefs cycles along the highways and byways of the Manitoba prairie; steep and arid Catalina Foothills; and lush, rolling French countryside. While he rides, he unflinchingly examines his sense of Self, uncovering bright flares of insight, earthy humour, deep-seated fears of mortality, and Zen-like moments when the Self falls away and all that remains is peace.

Dead Man on a Bike is a love letter to cycling, to family and friends, and to the natural world. For cancer patients, it offers a new approach to grappling with disease. -Winnipeg Free Press

Wayne Tefs was born in Winnipeg and grew up in northwestern Ontario. He has edited a number of anthologies and published nine novels and a work of non-fiction. His novel Moon Lake received the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction in 2000 and his novel Be Wolf won the 2007 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife and son.

Wayne Tefs' profile page

"Dead Man on a Bike is a love letter to cycling, to family and friends, and to the natural world. For cancer patients, it offers a new approach to grappling with disease." -Winnipeg Free Press