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The latest titles from Turnstone Press

Mike Grandmaison's Prair…
Dating: a novel
Drift
Hang Down Your Head
Alert to Glory
Dadolescence
What the Bear Said
Portraits of Winnipeg

Mike Grandmaison's Prairie and Beyond

In lush full colour, award-winning photographer Mike Grandmaison’s expert lens captures the vastness of sky and land that define the prairie landscape.

Dating: a novel

Jenkins never dreamed he’d live long enough to be dating again. Hilarious, touching, and a little saucy, Dating proves that life is full of surprises no matter how old you are.

Drift

South Africa is long way from Canada. In 1899, two prairie boys throw themselves into the conflict of the Second Boer War looking for something their small-town lives cannot provide. With breathtaking grace, Leo Brent Robillard delivers an unstoppable story.

Hang Down Your Head

Join Randy Craig for a roller coaster read with more twists than the Mindbender. Hang on to your hat for Hang Down Your Head. It’s Janice MacDonald at the top of her game. —Suzanne North, author of the Phoebe Fairfax

Alert to Glory

"Sound the trumpets! Sally Ito’s Alert to Glory is a clarion call … A transformative book both salt and sweet." — Susan McCaslin

Dadolescence

"This witty meditation on manly manliness is a head-butt at academic pretension and the Sword of Damocles that is the PhD thesis. A new novel so good, you’ll actually finish it." - Al Rae, Artistic Director, CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

What the Bear Said

What the Bear Said is a marvellous collection of fables. The stories are immediate, the characters, both human and supernatural, crackle with life . . . —W. P. Kinsella

Portraits of Winnipeg

Winnipeg artist and designer, Robert J. Sweeney, captures Winnipeg’s urban landscape in this remarkable collection of sketches, Portraits of Winnipeg: The River City in Pen and Ink.

Drift

Written by Leo Brent Robillard

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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.

Additional Info

Leo Brent Robillard knows that questions raised by the Boer War are strikingly relevant to our times: are wars waged for political or ethical reasons—to secure diamond and gold mines or to end slavery, to protect oil shipments or to bring democracy? In prose as crisp and bracing as the Great Karoo itself, Drift examines what motivates us to volunteer to fight a war that is not our own, whether it’s idealism, escapism, or cynicism, and shows what happens when any ism comes gunsight to gunsight with reality. Robillard gets it, and he gets it right. —Wayne Grady, author, with Merilyn Simonds, of Breakfast at the Exit Cafe
So often it takes fiction to reveal the truths about our own history. Leo Brent Robillard’s Drift puts a human face on the plight of a soldier of the Second Boer War, a young man with A Company of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles—the “Little Green Devils”—fighting in a faraway land. Armed with his Lee-Enfield rifle, the Canadian warrior encounters new technology in the form of superior guns and observation balloons. He struggles with both the individuality of his fellow fighters, and the sudden and incomprehensible anonymity of their deaths. He learns the true cost of victory. —Rita Donovan, author of As for the Canadians

Array

Comment on the different meanings of the title.
How and why have attitudes regarding war changed over the last century?
Media and media coverage of war have also evolved since the Anglo-Boer War. How might these developments play a role in our changing attitudes?
Despite all that has changed, the Anglo-Boer War and modern conflicts still have much in common. For instance, what parallels can be drawn between Canada's current role in Afghanistan?
A key conflict in the novel revolves around a disgraceful incident Will witnesses between Canadian troops and an African boy. This occurrence is loosely based upon an event that transpired while Canadian soldiers were serving in Somalia during the 1990s. How is it that amidst the atrocities of war, we can still be outraged by certain forms of violence while accepting others as necessary? Have these lines shifted in the last one hundred years?
While war is often waged in the name of righteousness and justice – or human rights today – these philosophical concepts are, more often than not, thinly veiled dressing for slightly more base economic imperatives. During the Anglo-Boer War, it was access to diamonds and other resources in South Africa. What modern conflicts fit this description? Why do we feel the need to "dress up" these economic pursuits?
When referring to Africa, Campbell says, "There are European footprints all over this continent. But the wind erases them eventually." What does this mean? Is it true? Where else do we see this in history?
All the characters in the novel find themselves at the mercy of history. Some attempt to carve out their own destinies within the confines of history, some ignore history, and some throw their hands up in defeat. Comment specifically on Will, Robert, Claire, Mason and Campbell. What about minor characters such as Siphokazi or Hilde?
Discuss the development of Will's relationship with Claire. How is their "love" believable?
What, if anything, does Will learn on this journey? How is he different in the end?

Last modified on Thursday, 23 February 2012 16:37

Product Details

SKU: 9780888013859
Price: $19.00

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Leo Brent Robillard

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.

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