Jude Traynor has served his time in prison and now he's heading back to his hometown on the Southern Shore of Newfoundland. But first, he has to come to terms with who he was and what happened one night, years before, when he was barely seventeen years old.

Joel Thomas Hynes's stunning exploration of guilt and remorse, of love and regret, received raves as an award-winning stage play; this is the novella that inspired the play, available at last in print. Hynes's pitch perfect ear for voice and his remarkable sense of dramatic cadence combine to form a story of great power and ultimately great humanity. This is Newfoundland Gothic at its best.

Cover image and other drawings by Gerald L. Squires.

Joel Thomas Hynes is a multidisciplinary, award-winning artist from Newfoundland. Hynes has worked in the Canadian film and television industry for more than fifteen years as a writer, an actor and a director. He wrote and directed two award-winning short films, Clipper Gold and Little Man, and is the author of numerous acclaimed books and stageplays, including the novels Down To The Dirt and Right Away Monday. His screen adaptation of his book Say Nothing Saw Wood was nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards, and he has performed numerous lead and principle roles for TV and film, including Down to the Dirt, Book of Negroes, ReGenesis, Rookie Blue, Republic of Doyle and, currently, Orphan Black.

Joel Hynes' profile page

Gerald Squires was born in Change Islands, Newfoundland, in 1937. He obtained much of his early training in art in Toronto, where his mother, a Salvation Army officer, was stationed when Squires was twelve. In 1969 he returned to live in Newfoundland with his wife Gail and daughters Meranda and Esther, settling in 1971 at the Ferryland lighthouse residence and then moving to Holyrood in 1983. Squires received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts in 1984 and an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University in 1992. In 1999 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and was also appointed Member of the Order of Canada. He received the Golden Jubilee Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2003, and in 2008 he was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Arts Hall of Honour. Major exhibitions have traveled across Canada, and his works have been included in more than 300 group exhibitions in Newfoundland, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France and India.Squires received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts in 1984 and an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University in 1992. In 1999 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and was also appointed Member of the Order of Canada. He received the Golden Jubilee Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2003, and in 2008 he was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Arts Hall of Honour. Major exhibitions have traveled across Canada, and his works have been included in more than 300 group exhibitions in Newfoundland, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France and India.

Gerald Squires' profile page

• Short-listed, Relit Award - Novel
• Short-listed, Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage and History Award

Praise for Hynes's previous work:

"A full-blooded, psychologically incisive piece of writing."
—The Observer (UK)

"Riveting... unconscionably funny... Its capturing of life's unaccountable cruelty is breathtaking..."
—The Globe and Mail

"Hynes is a mesmerizing storyteller."
—Now Magazine