Arlene Smith gives four stars to Leo Brent Robillard's novel, Drift: "His books are literary works with a poetic feel that comes through even when he is describing the shattering effects of combat. Drift is a beautifully written story of a war that hasn't been explored to the same extent as the World Wars." Please see full review here.
About Drift:
Paardeberg, South Africa is far from the Canadian prairies. In 1899, best friends from the small town of Portage la Prairie, Will and Mason, sign up with the Winnipeg Rifles’ “A” Company to fight in the Second Boer War. Here they meet Robert, the silent anthropologist from Alberta with a mystery he isn’t revealing; Claire, an Australian nurse, chafing under her parents’ glass ceiling; and Campbell Scott, a rebellious veteran with an African wife and a hot air balloon requisitioned by the army for spying.
All are fleeing their former lives but to be free they must face the shattered bodies of war. In the dust and desert of South Africa, they drift towards each other in ways that can spell either disaster or salvation. Different reasons fuel each person’s motion: Mason wants to fight in the name of justice, pride, and manliness. Will, hesitant from the start, ultimately learns that war is hell. Claire struggles for independence, and Campbell Scott drowns his disillusions in his wife’s potent homebrew.
With breathtaking grace, Leo Brent Robillard delivers an unstoppable story.
About the author:
Leo Brent Robillard is an author, and educator. His work has appeared in various magazines, journals, and anthologies in Canada and abroad. He is a past recipient of the George Johnston Poetry Prize, the Ray Burell Award for Poetry and the Cold Steel Crime and Mystery Award. He is the author of two Turnstone Press novels, Leaving Wyoming, and Houdini’s Shadow. He lives, teaches, and writes in Ontario.