Set on the coast of Newfoundland on June 24, 1948, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Gaff Topsails is the story of many characters. A middle-aged Irish priest, newly arrived from the New Guinea missions, reflects on a failed love affair. Michael Barron, a mute boy-man, has fallen in love and is puzzled and frightened by the way that his life is turning into a dangerous business. His younger brother, Kevin, is terrorized by whispering monsters that pursue him. An adolescent girl-woman invokes the pagan superstitions of Midsummer’s Day. A woman spends most of her waking hours seated in a rooftop chair, overlooking the sea, waiting for the return of her fisherman-husband. Old Johnny, the mad lighthouse-keeper, remains haunted by a horrifying experience years earlier when his deceit saved others from a terrible death. In the midst of the twentieth century, the spirit of an Irish castaway, dead five hundred years, survives within every soul in Gaff Topsails.

Patrick Kavanagh was born in St. John's, Newfoundland. Based mainly in Ottawa, he has spent long periods living abroad. While in Beijing he acted as research assistant to the Chinese translators of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and at the same time he completed his own first novel, Gaff Topsails. In recent years he has focused on travel writing and on non-fiction related to international development and human rights. He has been a supporter of Amnesty International, PEN Canada, the Ottawa International Writers’ Festival, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont.

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“There is no mistaking the talent and vivid imagination at work throughout the novel.”

Publishers’ Weekly

“Patrick Kavanagh’s debut is a rich and ambitious book … above all, it thrills to language and brings the ordinary to new life.”

The London Times

“Like flaming Catherine wheels, Kavanagh’s prose takes us rolling across landscapes and across time … This is a serious new Canadian talent, and a magical story well told.”

The Ottawa Citizen

“This first novel has much to recommend it. Atmospheric, full of memorable characters and salty vernacular.”

Library Journal

“This extraordinary first novel … marks the advent of a major new Canadian literary talent. Kavanagh’s musical prose is full of the lilt of Newfoundland voices and his knowledge of the nooks and crannies of language and folklore is profound.”

The Toronto Star

“Like Joyce, Kavanagh uses language as a metaphor for the division of souls and of countries … The ultimate effect is individualistic and … refreshing.”

The New York Times

“Kavanagh writes lovingly and carefully of a life and a land that he must know in his bones, so intimate is the sense of it we are left with.”

The Globe and Mail