The Republic of Nothing
Reader's Guide Edition
- Publisher
- Goose Lane Editions
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2007
- Category
- Literary
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780864924933
- Publish Date
- Feb 2007
- List Price
- $19.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Winner, Dartmouth Book Award
Shortlisted, Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award
A small Canadian island declares its independence to the world and benign anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960s blaze off shore and draw the island's inhabitants into politics, the Vietnam War, and the peace movement.
Sound impossible? Not on Whalebone Island, AKA the Republic of Nothing. Where else can a dead circus elephant, a long-dead Viking, the discovery of uranium, a raven-haired castaway who may be psychic, an anarchist turned politician, and refugees fleeing from the United States all be part of everyday life? Where else is eccentricity embraced with such open arms?
In this new readers' guide edition, complete with an afterword by Neil Peart, Lesley Choyce's novel about resilience, independence, and anarchy comes alive, leading readers to discover once again that everything is nothing and nothing is everything.
About the authors
No one has a clearer view of Atlantic Canada's literary endeavours over the past twenty years than Lesley Choyce. He is the founder of the literary journal Pottersfield Portfolio, and the publisher of Pottersfield Press. He has edited several fiction anthologies and has been the in-house editor of many books from Pottersfield Press including Making Waves, a collection of stories by emerging authors from Atlantic Canada. He is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from poetry and essays to autobiography, history and fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Among his recent books are the novels The Republic of Nothing, World Enough, and Cold Clear Morning, and the story collection Dance the Rocks Ashore. Choyce is the writer, host, and co-producer of the popular literary show television program, Off the Page with Lesley Choyce, which is broadcast across the country on Vision TV. He also teaches in the English department of Dalhousie University in Halifax and is leader of the rock band The Surf Poets.
Neil Peart is an internationally acclaimed, bestselling, and award-nominated author, and for more than thirty-five years has been the celebrated drummer and lyricist for Rush, the most successful band in the history of Canadian rock music. Defying categorization, his books have earned a devoted, ever-growing readership by combining elements of memoir, travel writing, and social commentary with a thoughtful, musical sense of self-discovery. His previous books include Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (2006), the story of Peart’s two-wheeled travels on Rush’s 30th Anniversary tour in 2004; TRAVELING MUSIC: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times (2004), a unique triple memoir of a man, a musician, and a traveler; and THE MASKED RIDER: Cycling in West Africa (1996), a richly textured account of bicycle touring in “the continent where both life and art began.” The relentlessly soul-searching GHOST RIDER: Travels on the Healing Road (2002) was chosen by The Writers’ Trust of Canada as a Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize finalist for its “exceptional merit” as one of the five best biographies of the year. For their achievements, Peart and his Rush bandmates have been appointed Officers of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Awards
- Winner, Dartmouth Book Award
- Short-listed, Atlantic Booksellers' Choice Award
