It is the summer of 1956, and although Rusty Macken is eager to leave rural Vancouver Island – and his family – for university, the events of Glory’s funeral will not make it easy. Over the course of a single day, the rambunctious Macken clan gathers at the site of the burned-down seaside hotel that was once the family base to mourn and remember the glamorous city girl who married the wildest Macken of all but never quite adapted to their country ways. By the time the sun comes up on the following day, Rusty may have participated in something of a miracle. At the very least, he will have been forced to confront the uneasy secrets of his own heart. Compassionate, hilarious, and wise, The Macken Charm brilliantly captures the joys, the frustrations, and the rich human drama of family life.

Jack Hodgins was raised in Merville, on Vancouver Island, and graduated from the University of British Columbia. Until recently, he taught fiction writing at the University of Victoria. His novels and story collections include: Spit Delaney’s Island, The Invention of the World, Innocent Cities, Broken Ground, Distance, and Damage Done by the Storm. In the spring of 2010, he published his newest novel, The Master of Happy Endings (Thomas Allen). A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction) is used in classrooms and writing groups across Canada and Australia. Hodgins’ fiction has won the Governor General’s Award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Commonwealth Prize (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, amongst others. He has given readings, talks, and workshops in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and several European countries, and has taught an annual fiction workshop in Mallorca, Spain. In 2006 he received both the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in British Columbia. In 2009 the Governor General appointed him a Member of the Order of Canada. He and his wife Dianne have three grown children and three grandchildren. Jack Hodgins’ website is www.jackhodgins.ca

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• Nominated, Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book

“The Macken Charm proves [Jack Hodgins] to be one of the best writers of novels in this country.…”
–Quill & Quire (starred review)

“The Macken Charm takes up the theme of the family with wild exuberance.…Hodgins is a funny writer and, in the comic tradition of W.O. Mitchell, Paul Quarrington and other tall-tale spinners, he can make you laugh out loud. He can also make you cry and there lies the gift of the storyteller.”
–Kitchener-Waterloo Record

“Written in flawless prose – word for word, Hodgins is one of the country’s best writers.…”
–Books in Canada

“It is a fine, funny, sad and readable [novel], a great yarn, the kind only an expert storyteller can produce.…”
–Ottawa Citizen

“An engaging tribute to family and community and lost innocence.”
–Montreal Gazette

“A rollicking novel.…”
–Canadian Literature

“A joyous, vigorous, humorous novel that, in the best traditions of comedy, hovers precariously but purposefully on the brink of the tragic.…The Macken Charm is a bravura performance, and deserves a wide readership.”
–CBRA

“[Hodgins] brilliantly evokes time and place.…”
–Vancouver Sun

“Entertaining.…This is a colorful, imaginative story.…”
–Winnipeg Free Press

“Hodgins has written a powerful novel about grief and beauty, about what has been lost and how to redeem yourself after failure.”
–Ottawa X Press