Villis — a cranky, retired anthropologist and survivor of Stalin's gulag work prisons — walks daily in The Pearl, an unspoiled frill of forest, along with his long time friend, Bipin. They banter about the nature of man, of gods, and of what Bipin calls the World Wise Web. They dream of a trip to Easter Island to see the stout and silent monoliths that hunker on the cliff edges of that barren South Seas place. Everything is connected, Bipin believes. There are no coincidences. So, when a cerebrally challenged young man invades The Pearl on an all-terrain vehicle, chewing up trails and squashing amphibians, Bipin seeks the cosmic meaning inherent in this assault. Villis, on the other hand, wants to wage war. Villis' and Bipin's naive efforts to dispel the intruder from The Pearl spiral into a rollicking chaos of confusion, involving celebrity impersonators, visions of cavemen, and a time portal swirling from within the vibrating heart of The Pearl.

Janet Turpin Myers' profile page

Janet Turpin Myers is a Canadian novelist and poet. Her debut novel, Nightswimming, was released by Seraphim in 2013. Her short story, Crashing, won third place in the 2013 gritLIT Fiction competition. Her poems have been published in 'Hammered Out' and 'Tower Poetry' anthologies. She has recently appeared at the Ottawa Writer's Festival;; Hamilton's gritLIT Festival;; Burlington's, Meet the Author series;; North Words Literary Festival;; Hamilton's LitLive Reading Series and the Junction Reads Series in Toronto.