It is Christmastime in Cape Breton, and a young boy describes the anticipation his family feels toward the holiday and most of all, to the homecoming of his older brother, Neil, working in Ontario on the "lake boats."

To Every Thing There is a Season was first published in 1977, yet its impact remains powerful to this day. This new softcover edition features 20 of Peter Rankin's splendid illustrations, a perfect complement to a classic Canadian Christmas story.

Alistair MacLeod was born in Saskatchewan in 1936 and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He has published two internationally acclaimed collections of short stories: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (1976) and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun (1986). In 2000, these two books, accompanied by two new stories, were published as Island: The Collected Stories of Alistair MacLeod. In 1999, MacLeod's first novel, No Great Mischief, was published to stellar critical acclaim. The novel won the Dartmouth Book Award, the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, The Trillium Award, the CAA Award, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards for Fiction Book of the Year and Author of the Year. In 2001, No Great Mischief was awarded the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the world's most prestigious literary prizes.

Alistair MacLeod's profile page

Peter Rankin is a Cape Breton-based artist. He is the illustrator of the children's book Making Room.

Peter Rankin's profile page