Man of Bone is a psychologically taut, harrowing novel that takes the reader hostage when Ottawan Bill Burridge is thrust into the nightmare of third-world terrorism. Burridge has moved his family to the South Pacific “island paradise” of Santa Irene on his first diplomatic posting. This is a country that has been dominated by a longtime dictator and is now threatened by an uprising of the revolutionary Kartouf. It is also a country where village boys routinely disappear and their bodies are found weeks later – and where a young diplomat from Canada suddenly finds himself shackled to a prison wall, in stifling heat and terror. Written in riveting prose, often edged with dark humour, Man of Bone takes us on a mesmerizing journey to the depths and peaks of the human spirit.

Alan Cumyn has written many highly acclaimed novels for both children and adults. His three Owen Skye books have won several major awards. The Secret Life of Owen Skye won the Mr. Christie's Award and was nominated for the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award and the Pacific Northwest Libraries Association Young Readers Choice Award. After Sylvia was nominated for the TD Children's Literature Award, and Dear Sylvia was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association Children's Book of the Year Award. Alan is also a two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award. Alan teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently chair of the Writers' Union of Canada.

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“Evoked with breathtaking precision.…Cumyn’s tale enters the psyche like a knifeblade, stirring visceral response. . . . This novel is a marvel of honesty, an unwavering gaze at the darkest of human failings.”
–Montreal Gazette

“Cumyn’s powerful novel grips us.…Man of Bone is technically accomplished, a powerful, moving meditation on brutality, eroticism, love, pain, god, and humanity.”
–Quill & Quire (starred review)
“There is a chilling confidence and authority in Cumyn’s voice. But there is also tenderness and a delicate poignancy.…Man of Bone is an important novel.”
–Edmonton Journal
“A masterwork of contemporary CanLit.…”
–Andrew Pyper, Toronto Star
“One of the best young writers in the country.”
–Alistair MacLeod

“Cumyn is mesmerizing in this novel, which magnificently enshrines spirit beyond the limitations of the physical body.”
–Globe and Mail

“Remarkable.…The writing in this novel is taut and controlled. Burridge’s voice rings true, resonating with the anguished horror of a man at fear for his life.…Cumyn’s background as a research officer for the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board has evidently yielded much raw material for this book, but it is his dexterity as a writer of fiction that enables him to shape his material into a novel of transcendent humanity.”
–The Fiddlehead
“As tautly written as a spy thriller and a masterful meditation on the reality of torture.…”
–Matrix