Emulating the circuitous tales told by his mother's relatives, the Goodyears of Newfoundland, David Macfarlane has crafted a masterpiece of history and memory that will remain indelibly in the minds of its readers. Macfarlane weaves the major events of Newfoundland's twentieth century-the ravages of tuberculosis; the great seal-hunt disaster; the bitter debate over whether to become part of Canada; and above all, the First World War-into a saga of the ill-starred yet heroic fortunes ofhis family, who were rarely in control of events but often at the center of them. With deep affection, he brings to life a multigenerational cast of characters who are as colorful as only Newfoundlanders can be-heroes and charlatans, pirates and dreamers, whose humanity manages to illuminate and enrich our own.

David Macfarlane is the author of the acclaimed family memoir of Newfoundland, The Danger Tree, which won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Non-Fiction in 1992. He began his career as a writer and editor with Weekend Magazine and has since been published in Saturday Night, Maclean's, Toronto Life, and Books in Canada. He is the recipient of eleven National Magazine Awards, the Sovereign Award for Magazine Journalism, an Author's Award for Magazine Writing, and a recent national newspaper award for his weekly column in The Globe and Mail. He has written and produced a documentary and won a Gemini for his television work. In 1999, Summer Gone was nominated for the Giller Prize and in 2000 it was the co-winner of the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award.

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“[An] uncommonly wise and moving book.” —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

“An altogether remarkable, frequently funny, genuinely moving, and utterly original book.” —Jan Morris

“The Danger Tree is absolutely riveting: an extraordinary mixture of history, memory, fiction, and technique that succeeds at every level. I was touched, I was exhilarated, and I was thrilled to read a book that has risen to the challenge of recording...the past in all our hearts.” —Michael Ignatieff

“I've just discoveredThe Danger Tree and am stunned. It is so good.” —Alice Munro