Product Description
In this invaluable contribution to the continuing debate about religious belief, David Adams Richards offers an exhilaratingly fresh perspective and a voice more impassioned, heartfelt, and sometimes furious, than anything written about God by an atheist.

David Adams Richards, one of Canada’s most beloved and celebrated authors, has been wrestling with questions of morality, faith, and religion ever since he was a child. They have always informed his fiction. Now he examines their role in his own life and spells out his own belief, in what is his most self-revealing work to date. With characteristic honesty, Richards charts his rocky relationship with his cradle Catholicism, his battles with personal demons, his encounters with men who were proud to be murderers, and the many times in his life when he has been witness to what he unapologetically calls miracles. In this subtly argued, highly personal polemic, David Adams Richards insists that the presence of God cannot be denied, and that many of those who espouse atheism also know that presence, though they would not admit it to anyone — including themselves. Every follower of today’s battle between faith and atheism, and every lover of David Adams Richards’ superb fiction, will find God Is revelatory.

“I believe that all of us, even those who are atheists, seek God — or at the very least not one of us would be unhappy if God appeared and told us that the universe was actually His creation. Oh, we might put Him on trial for making it so hard, and get angry at Him, too, but we would be very happy that He is here. Well, He is.”

Questions of faith, morality, the role of unseen forces in our destinies, have been central to the fiction of David Adams Richards. Now he directly addresses what these questions have meant to him in his own life, and what he has come firmly to believe. He has always been a courageous and uncompromisingly honest writer — but never more so than here.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Product Description
David Adams Richards’ Governor General’s Award-winning novel is a powerful tale of resignation and struggle, fierce loyalties and compassion. This book is the first in Richards’ acclaimed Miramichi trilogy. Set in a small mill town in northern New Brunswick, it draws us into the lives of a community of people who live there, including: Joe Walsh, isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita, willing to believe the best about people; and their teenage daughter Adele, whose nature is rebellious and wise, and whose love for her father wars with her desire for independence. Richards’ unforgettable characters are linked together in conflict, and in articulate love and understanding. Their plight as human beings is one we share.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Dark Nights
I found the book well written with believable characters.A bit darker than I was expecting but with elements of redemption

Nights Below Station Street By David Adams Richards
The book doesn't have a THEME or a STORY LINE.. it goes on about human struggle in relationships (people seeking belonging).
If you're looking for a book with action and a story line (i.e. someone goes to war and returns, and so on) this book isn't for you.
Again, this book depicts human struggles in relationships; we find in-depth description about the characters in the novel and some of the things that go on. The structure of the novel is much like a memoir; meaning the story goes back and forth and jumps from "one topic to the other".
Hopefully this thread didn't confuse you and simply made it easier to pick the right book.

The genuine heartbreaking book of staggering genius
What I recognize in my second adventure into this author's work is a particular truth--which is that (at least in my Canadian experience) poor communities have a singular commonality. There is a language, both spoken and experiential, about being poor that transcends its environment. In Richards' books, poor in Toronto sounds and feels a lot like poor in New Brunswick. While the physical aspects are very different, the population isn't. And there was something so familiar about some of the characters that I felt as if I'd known them in my childhood.

Poor angry, alienated to the point of sickness Adele; her mother, lovely, determined Rita, making the best of her marriage to alcoholic Joe--who just may be one of the most perfectly rendered characters I've ever encountered. One cannot help but love and feel for Joe, battling his demons and temptations that all reside within bottles; stammering, powerful Joe with his big body and battered, but still functioning heart; Joe the unlikeliest of heroes.

There is such a cast of characters in this book; they have their hopes and miseries and they all intersect at one point or another as time eases away unnoticed and fate makes itself felt in every way in the hushed, shattering beauty of a blizzard.

David Adams Richards is the consummate observer, translating his visions into quiet, apparently effortless prose; placing people before us in all their flawed splendor so that we might view the human condition and reflect upon our similarities and differences.

My highest recommendation.

Challenging but potentially engaging
You will get to know some members of a small mining town in New Brunswick, all struggling to figure themselves out, find love, and place themselves in a difficult world.

I had some trouble getting used to his unique style of writing - David Adams Richards writes as if observing his characters and describing their actions and thoughts as if he's from another land altogether.This was very distracting for me, and tended to take away my flow of reading.On the other hand, it was also challenging, in that it made me think about the characters and what their words and actions meant.

The last 20-30 pages are by far the best of the entire novel and well worth the read.

Pretty good
Slow going at times, but it wraps up nicely and the reader is feeling asthough everything is as it should and always has been. ... Read more

Product Description
A highly suspenseful story of greed, betrayal and murder, 'The Lost Highway' signals a thrilling new direction for one of Canada s greatest authors.For twenty years, Alex Chapman has been at war with his great-uncle James, popularly known asThe Tyrant.Disillusioned and ill-tempered, Alex believes James has destroyed his chances in life when things do notturn outfor him. He especially resents his great-uncle for ruining his chance at happiness with his one true love, Minnie, who married another. Alex seems destined never to amount to anything more than an embittered dreamer, until the night he runs into the simple mechanic Burton Tucker. When Burton says he has just sold James Chapman a winning lottery ticket worth thirteen million dollars, Alex immediately knows that his uncle must never see the money.That moment is the beginning of an enthralling mystery and an emotionally shattering tale of a family s passions and betrayals. 'The Lost Highway' is a chilling study of what happens to men and women when moral questions become matters of life and death. A page-turner with great spiritual force, 'The Lost Highway' is the work of a brilliant novelist at the peak of his powers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

David Richards has a formidable talent!
This is probably the saddest and most broody book that I have read in some time.It does start out slow and we delve deep into Alex Chapman's mind and his motives, but about halfway through it picks up quite a bit.By that time Mr. Adams has set the stage for a great psychological suspense book that shows depravity at its very worst.Richards' plot is set in and around an unclaimed winning lottery ticket, and he shows how the thought of a large amount of money can change people's personalities entirely and how it can cause some people to step way over the line.I love the setting in around New Brunswick.It is the perfect place near this lost highway for all kinds of dark and terrible things to happen.I know there are lots of places in Canada that are in decline like this place that Richards has chosen for his setting.Rural Canada has many roads to nowhere and many people that society has forgotten that still live there.This book is a tragedy, but one that I could not put down once I got into it.

Lost about why it's called the Lost Highway
People always use terms like "moral" and "fierce" to describe this writer, but I'd forgotten how long winded and repetitive he could be. A couple of sections were terribly preachy; his own moral theories badly woven into the story. Worst of all, the main character Alex was portrayed as a small town ethics lecturer, but his thoughts and prejudices were akin to those of a person with half his IQ. In short, an unbelievable character in a sometimes unbelievable story.

Other people and sequences worked a lot better; the incorrigible Leo Bourque, the uncommonly insightful native Canadian police inspector Markus Paul and the breathtaking scene near the end when a 15 year old girl is pursued by two men who wish to drown her.

Particularly in the second half, the book gathered momentum and was really compelling, but at half the size it would have been every bit as effective. It's not that often I spend so much time wondering how clumsily chapters are put together, or why the same points are repeated again and again and the obvious re-stated. I have been spoiled by the sparse writing of Galgut and Coetzee for sure.

"For great good a crime might be necessary"
Mirroring the great classics of literature this vast and unwieldy novel of betrayal centers on the winnings of a lottery ticket and those characters that become willingly caught up in an effort to find the elusive receipt and then hopefully cash it in. But what starts out as a rather depressing tale of animosity and bitterness, unrequited love, and all-consuming betrayal, soon turns into a full blown cosmic morality play where stabbings, blackmail, long held family resentments, and even murder provide the overriding themes.

Steeped in a literary flavor that is deeply reflective of the novels of the great Russian classic authors, The Lost Highway begins as the down and out Alex Chapman discovers from the owner of the local service station, Burton Tucker, that his despotic great uncle Jim Chapman has just won thirteen million dollars. Over the years Alex's relationship with his uncle, nicknamed the "the old man" has been fraught with difficulty, both of them warring off and on for twenty years, ever since the boy had left the priesthood under what were called suspicious circumstances.

Living a paltry existence in a small cabin that used to be the old man's icehouse, Alex plots and plans and ruminates on his failed life even as he's certain he's going to be kicked out of his ramshackle him. With old Jim Chapman also intent to write him out of the will, Alex is positive that his Uncle's enmity for him originates from along with his long-held dislike of Alex's father, mainly because of how he treated Alex's long-suffering mother.

As The Lost Highway opens, both uncle and nephew are embroiled in a "brutal infantile tit-for-tat." Alex has tried to live a life both fair and honest, yet he's never got ahead. Jim Chapman, however, sees his nephew as an unadulterated failure that has done his best to ruin the family fortune. Haunted by the painful death of his mother, and with few expectations, Alex begins to obsess over this money that he considers is just too much for an enemy like Jim Chapman.

To let Chapman have his winnings would be the end of Alex's life. He would never be able to live down Jim's hubris, nor would he be able to crawl back. But there is also another consideration - that of the love of his life, Minnie Patch. So with ideas twirling around in his mind like a windstorm, his life with Minnie like those of unrequited lovers, Alex hangs onto the hope that somehow Minnie really still loves him. He plans to steal the lotto ticket, from his uncle, the tyrant, to keep her respect. But Minnie has married Sam Patch, and the only way that Alex can guarantee that Minnie will come back to him is to use the moment to entice her.

If Alex could somehow get this money, he would do far more good with it than his uncle who has lost himself in anger of his failed plowing company, and Minnie might just come back to him. It is this dilemma that is central to this somewhat overwrought novel that is peppered with drunks and scabs, the characters mostly hard-noised and poverty stricken, forever damaged and always bereaved. These are people who have faced their fair share of life's hard knocks.

Alex is a man who had planned to save money, to have things in his own life, and to be happy, but it isn't until he reconnects his arch childhood nemesis Leo Bourque who knows a secret, something Alex had done to the Jim Chapman's company a year ago, that Alex - and consequently Leo - are set on a path towards self destruction.

This is indeed a powerful novel, full of misery and poverty, but often the narrative goes in circles, the author more concerned with espousing his complex philosophical views on religion, morality, and faith than propelling the story forward. A compendium of destiny and a well-crafted meditation on the human condition, The Lost Highway works as a complex portrait of a vast and rapacious ego with unchecked moral compass that ends up justifying to a horrible act, but it is also a novel that often sinks under the weight of it's own repetitiveness and self-importance.

With a plot that revolves around a dead body and a teenage girl who knows what is at a stake regarding the thirteen million dollars, life for Alex and Leo comes to a devastating climax in an ending that is riddled with a type of bitter irony. The aftermath of a violent act and the total sum of all Alex's plans and ambitions end up coming to the single sentence: "You have done what you have done." Mike Leonard April 08.
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Product Description
Writing with the same mastery and insight that have won him praise for his fiction, Richards brings to life a community centered on fly-fishing, a sport that has become, for many, a way of life. Weaving together tales of the guides and poachers, the "sports" and the city slickers, Richards pays tribute to all who have shared the joy of fishing. From his first fishing trip at age 4 to his endless search for the next great fishing pool, Richards takes us beyond fly-fishing and offers thoughts and insight about nature, perseverance, reverence, friendship, history, memory, and the changes the modern world has brought. Lines on the Water teems with wisdom, humor, and most of all, passion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderfully human memoir of personal obstacles and fshing
This is a well-written memoir about David Richards' immersion into the life on fly fishing as he grows up on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, Canada. I picture the opening lines being read by that deep Garrison-Keller like voice at the opening of a movie and the book maintains this poetic flavor throughout.

Richards starts his book in his childhood with his initial fishing experiences with his brother, friends, uncles and other figures. He discusses how having a lame left are and foot affected his fishing and then he moves on very well.

The cast of characters from Peter, to Mr. Simms to Henry, the poacher-turned-warden, is immediately recognizable from my fishing travels in the Maritime Provinces. The characters from his life are presented in all of their flaws, talents and humanity. His love for the river and area also shine through in their descriptions and sadness for how they have changed.

The stories move forward in time but flow back and forth as needed like memories that are being recalled as they flow in the authors mind. This a great book for those who love fishing and or for those who just love to read a good memoir.
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Customer Reviews (30)

Heartbreaking poverty
This is really quite an incredible read.I was captivated by this story, and by the three generations of complicated Henderson men who just couldn't catch a break.The characters were very intriguing, and a lot of what happened was largely unexpected.The writing is exceptional, and it captures the loneliness of the place (rural New Brunswick) and the desperation of the people who live there very well.These people will stay with you for a long time afterward.Highly recommended.

Fine Dialogue, but the idiot plot triumphs.
Richards has an engaging writing style. It's simple and direct. The plot however concerns a family victimised by townsfolk you'd see in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The villains are written as completely one note. There is no depth to them and the Richardson clan is so meek and idiotic (confessing to crimes for no reason) that you feel nothing for them. Save your money and read the co-winner for the Giller Prize.

Fine Writer, but depressing, ridiculous story
Richards has a way with dialogue and the book is readable, but the story is so gloomy and the characters do not ring true. Everyone is either too noble or too villainous. The plot requires characters to behave like idiots. If they didn't, the novel would much, much shorter. Because the characters are one dimensional, it's impossible to feel anything for them.

I gave up.
Fine writing, beyond a doubt.I read widely and skip the fluff, but this was just sooooooooo unmitigatedly depressing, page after page of utter misery, that I could not go on.If you are really STRONG, get it, read it.Otherwise, you may never reach the mercy.I didn't.

Fiction on a Monumental and Profound Scale
Don't miss this one!

I have just completed this amazing novel, after devouring it in three days.David Adams Richards is a novelist of such staggering power that it is not at all a stretch to compare him with Hardy, Melville, and Tolstoy.His story of Morality, Poverty, Family, Violence, and the inevitable hand of Fate is a controlled steamroller of mounting tragedies, set in motion by a collection of common saints, fools, and monsters, characters in a town bound together by generations of interlocking lives.

Author Richards's unflinching portrait of a family destitute and battered by the condemnation of their community reminded me of the great novel "The Dollmaker" by Harriet Arnow, while the awesomely constructed plot that unfolds with such terrifying inevitability reminded me of that greatest of thrillers, "A Simple Plan" by Scott Smith.

That a book can be such a profound comment on our Humanity, and still be such a monster of a gripping story that you'll be unable to stop reading, is a gift to the lover of great novels.

And it is as affecting to the reader as Greek drama -- it will take me days to come down from the experience of reading it, and perhaps years to find a novel as perfectly formed as Mercy Among The Children.



... Read more

Product Description
The Terris are engaging people, but they are a family in collapse. Alcoholism, drugs, and loveless sex have reduced them to a petty and wasted bunch. Worse, they typify aspects of the larger community besieged by financial woes and by creeping economic and cultural Americanization.

What David Adams Richards accomplishes is no mean feat: his characters are at times vicious, sleazy, and even outright dim, yet he manages to entitle them to the interest and sympathy of the reader.

Even more now than at its first publication in 1981, Lives of Short Duration’s sharp, essential insights have significance for readers seeking to understand the modern Canadian predicament.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Canada and Hockey - They will only survive together.
Richards makes a distinct comment about Canada in Hockey Dreams.He shows that he is a true Canadian, and is not one of those people who like to think of themselves as intellectualsthat are above the game of hockey.Hockey is deep rooted in this country, and though it is true that it will never be the same, we still catch glimpses of its true spirit now and again.Richards has caught the spirit of the game and put it on paper.His is a remarkable feat considering that most of us can't even describe the game sufficiently in words.This is a must read for all people who consider themselves true Canadians.

In all of my eighteen years, I've never read a more accurate description of my game and its meaning.

Dreams Unforgotten
Richards reveals all those things which we thought nobody else had ever reflected upon.Could an American possibly enjoy this book?I'm not sure.But every Canadian who once was young, and who perhaps scooped mounds of snow, in a transe of fantasy, off a bumpy ice surface into the dark hours of once endless days, will appreciate this book like the game itself; the merciless joy of unhindered potential for our imagined years to come, and our mission to reach our potential until reality sinks in, will occupy your every shift, deek, and goal (or assist, for that matter).And this, from a 19 year old reader--just a reminder to Richards: though times have changed, they have ever remained the same (kids still play hockey, but then, maybe it isn't the same after all). ... Read more

Product Description
Janie McCleary runs one of the first movie theatres in New Brunswick. A successful woman in a world of men, she is ostracized, a victim of double-dealing and overt violence. She trusts nobody other than family. Spanning generations this title explores the life of this formidable person.Amazon.com Review
Set in a small town on a river in New Brunswick, River of the Brokenhearted, David Adams Richards's first novel since his Giller Prize-winning Mercy Among the Children, is told by Wendell King, son of Miles King and grandson of the feisty, willful Janie McLeary King, who made her fortune running the town's first cinema. Set against this trio is the lower-class family of the Drukens, especially Rebecca Druken and her uncle, Joey Elias, bitter because their own early cinema failed. Established early on, the feud plays out across three generations, spanning successes, failures, murder, and dissolution. Yet despite the somewhat bleak subject matter, tremendous humour and vitality persist in this story. The characters leap off the page, and in the person of Miles King, Richards has imagined a fully human soul of stunning believability. Miles is fatally flawed, committing slow suicide by gin as his cinema too begins to fail in the face of the TV's small screen. A sensitive eccentric, a target of small-town narrowness, he is subtly tortured psychically, for years, by Elias and the vicious Rebecca, who have made the downfall of the Kings their life's ambition. Miles King is a character of great loneliness, pathos, humor, and compassion, one of the finest creations not only of Canadian writing but any literature.

River of the Brokenhearted is the story of a river, the Miramichi, but it is mostly about the river of time that passes through Miles King, his mother, his son, and their enemies, carrying all to their ultimate fates: "She had left a river in New Brunswick that would swallow you with its life, shout in its rapids, laugh in its eddies, create industry in its currents, a river of Irish and Scottish myth, wedded to the soil." An outstanding work of fiction. --Mark Frutkin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unraveling the Laws of Human Morality...
This is the best book that I have read in a long time. David Adams Richards writes about dichotomous themes--good and evil, love and hate--in a world that seems to have lost its sense of distinction between such binary oppositions. Richards's novel spans four generations and tells the story of two families--the Drukens and the Mclearys--and their conflict-ridden estrangement from themselves and from each other. Janie Mcleary, the protagonist, is an assertive and successful business woman who is left widowed by her husband. She and her children are tormented by the Druken family. Her daughter, Georgina, is murdered and her son, Miles, grows up to be ghosted by his past. Characters in this novel are haunted by memories and stuggle with their faith, morality and integrity. Richard's capacity as an author, stems, in part, from his astute perception into the nature of human greed and faith. River of the Brokenhearted is not a sensuous romance novel; it is a journey into the moral struggles of humanity. Richards conveys the notion that the "good" people and the "bad" people are not always cut in black and white colors; some seemingly "immoral" characters (i.e. Miles the alcoholic) emerge as the unsaid heroes of this text.Past wrongs are translated into bodily ailments that afflict the characters on a physical level, but these wrongs are erasable. Characters are given the chance of redemption. This book resonates with spiritual undertones. It may increase your faith... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One word: Wow
'The Bay of Love and Sorrows' is one of the best books--if not THE best--I've ever read.

Most books tend to be draggy at the start. This is an exception. It sucks you in from the beginning. It sucks you in and makes you feel like you're an observer, watching everything that's going on as the author describes it. You get outraged, you get saddened, you feel relief,...you feel everything as you read through this; and as you get further and further along, you don't want to stop reading.

The characters are human. No one is saintly, everyone has their faults and strengths. The actions and scenery are described very well--sometimes in a few words, sometimes in many words.

More importantly, though, it makes you think about how justice is doled out sometimes--how sometimes those who have nothing to do with what has happened end up suffering before those involved get their just desserts. It also makes you think about how some people will believe anything anyone tells them, without having the audacity and the know-how to question everything.

A definite must-read.

Sublime writing...
If you've not read any of David Adams Richards' books, you're missing a wonderful experience.Richards is master of the sublime, even when covering gritty topics and plotlines.Such as it is in this title; the characters are imperfect, flawed, some of them disturbed, outcast.This story is a tangled web woven, entrapping the souls it skirts, unravelling their lives as the situation(s) gain momentum.There are truly haunting moments experienced as one absorbs the tale.Although the reader will have affinity with the characters' very human flaws, Richards never allows us to get too close and I believe he does that deliberately; this fiction takes an in-depth look at the shallowness of living on the edge and the waste that it is.

The story will pull you in gently and carry you along with ease - the writing is so good you don't notice it... you simply absorb the story and its characters.

I've been keeping my eyes open for more of this writer's works (I started with his latest "Mercy Among the Children") as he has quickly become one of my fave writers.This is an excellent starter into the rich and dense world of David Adams Richards.Enjoy. ... Read more

Product Description
For David Adams Richards, blood ties is not merely a figure of speech, but an assertion of the reality of life in small-town Canada, where blood ties people in countless, almost unknowable ways to friends, community, and landscape. The lives of three generations of MacDurmots form a Miramichi Valley family portrait that is beguiling, insightful, witty, and tender. Employing dazzling angles of vision and fast-shifting perspectives, Richards captures the inner lives of his characters with sympathy and understanding. ... Read more

Product Description
David Adams Richards finds universal truths in the very particular setting of New Brunswick’s Miramichi Valley. This, his first novel, provides a window upon a world that is as unsettling, as uncontrollable, and as inescapably authentic as a sudden brawl.

The frustrations of the community are brought into focus in the plights of 20-year-old Kevin Dulse, his family, and especially his wild young friends. An intensely realistic story, it stands firm upon its engaging, unaffected characters and the raw talent of its then 22-year-old author.
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Customer Reviews (1)

An impressive debut
After reading the author's most recent work, followed by one somewhere in the middle, it was intriguing to read Richards' first novel. Written, amazingly, when he was only 23, The Coming of Winter foreshadows the splendid writer Richards has come to be.

This first of his New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey) novels is a potently quiet tale of a clutch of near-silent, deeply brooding people. At the apex is young Kevin Dulse, whose twenty-first birthday and marriage are approaching within two weeks' time. As are all the characters, Kevin's inner life is deftly depicted in all of its inchoate anger, integrity and confusion. The men in this book all have active lives of the mind but seem congenitally unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings. The women are only slightly more adept at expressing themselves.

What makes the novel so readable is the exquisitely observed minutiae of everyday life in a small town whose major employer is the mill. Kevin's observations while working a number of jobs at the mill, his determination to do even the lowliest job thoroughly and well, make him entirely human and sympathetic. His inability not to go out drinking with his friends is annoying--to him and to the reader--and yet he cannot stop himself.

In the course of the two weeks covered by the novel, Kevin takes any number of steps forward into maturity, into adulthood. The details of his mother's efforts to prepare for her son's wedding with only a week's notice are beautifully realized and touchingly real.

A quiet book with considerable subtext, my only complaint (and this is primarily an editorial flaw) is the shifting from one character to another without indication of which character is in focus. It makes for confusion as one shifts about, trying to glean from the text just who is holding center stage at a given moment. This is, otherwise, a remarkable achievement for the very young author. And his subsequent books demonstrate how wonderfully well Richards has developed as a writer. I've yet to find any one of his many novels less than fascinating.
Highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Richards' best novel...
Road to the Stilt House is an excellent novel written within the naturalist tradition. The gritty novel is written in a terse, pithy poetic style that suits Richards' relentless investigation of the social and moralconsequences of poverty. Richards' sense of indignation at the arm of thestate is at its most palpable and effective. Though often neglected, thisnovel is one of the best to come out of the Maritime Provinces and must bedealt with in any comprehensive theory of Canadian Literature. ... Read more

Product Description

Broadway director Leonard Foglia and cultural correspondent David Richards are true show business insiders. Now their partnership takes a daring twist with a roller-coaster thriller that strips away Hollywood's glitter and hype -- and spills celebrity secrets so close to real life, they just might he true.

Brent Stevens wasn't doing what most visitors come to do in Central Park -- no horse-drawn carriage rides or strolls through Strawberry Fields. He was lying face down trying to figure out the basics -- who he was, where he was, and who had tried to kill him. He wasn't coming up with any answers either -- until Tina Ruffo, a tender-hearted aerobics instructor from Queens, lent a helping hand.

Tina was an exception in New York, someone willing to get involved with a stranger. But well-dressed, good-looking Brent Stevens was extraordinary too, and so was his plight: After a blow to the back of the head, he can't recall his attacker. He has no idea what the key in his pocket actually unlocks. And he can't imagine the traps he's about to step into.

Now, as his memories come flooding back, Brent searches for the link between him and a mysterious figure living in New York's exclusive Dakota apartments, a female TV interviewer known for getting public figures to tell all on camera, and a glamorous husband and wife who are Hollywood's biggest box-office draws. With Tina at his side, Brent stumbles upon some dangerous secrets and finds the dark and deadly truth that connects them all.

Soon Brent and Tina are running for their lives, while discovering their unexpected mutual attraction. Caught in a vice between the irresistible power of Hollywood and the sweeping force of the media, they'll need every ounce of their courage and integrity to survive the sordid and seductive sides of a business that preys on misfortune -- and kills for a good story.

With breakneck pace -- and sharply witty renderings of celebs who seem all too familiar -- Face Down in the Park is super entertainment from two of today's most imaginative authors of first-rate suspense. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good story, not so good writing
Mystery about a man who regains consciousness face down in a park (hence the title). Not only does he have a nasty head wound, he also has complete amnesia. When an aerobics instructor comes to his rescue (reluctantly), thetwo begin trying to reconstruct his memory. The closer they get to thetruth, the more dangerous things look for both of them. The problem withthis book was that when two writers write one novel, it comes out clumsy,no matter what they try to do to avoid that. I enjoyed it, but I probablywon't look for their others.

gotta read it -fabulous summer read
I had to read it straight through!I loved it! Great characters, great story.

An unpredictable and highly enjoyable read
I really enjoyed reading this book.It was funny at times, always engaging and never predictable.Just when I thought I knew where it was going, it took a new turn.The characters reminded me of real people; some attractive, some flawed, some with an abundance of self importance, manywith secrets. I am impressed with the smooth flow and unraveling of theplot accomplished by two authors.Looking forward to their nextcollaboration.

A very enjoyable read filled with surprises
He has no idea who he is, why he is lying in a pool of his own blood in Central Park, and who mugged him to the point of almost killing him.He has no identity on him. Walking like a drunk, he manages to get out of thePark before collapsing on the streets of Manhattan.Queens' resident,personal fitness trainer Tina Ruffo sees the helpless individual andprovides him with needed assistance.At the hospital he learns that hesuffers from amnesia, and it could take months before his memory returns.

With Tina's help, he starts to piece together his life.He learnsthat his name is Brent Stevens.He also finds out that somehow he ismysteriously linked to a Hollywood couple releasing a new nude film oncreation called "In the Beginning".As they get closer to the truth, Tinaand Brent soon come under attack from a relentless enemy.

Reader'sfirst reaction will be to believe that an amnesia-based story line shouldbe a forgotten memory. They need to try the Hollywood mystery, FACE DOWN INTHE PARK.The story line is filled with non-stop action and peopled withcharacters and caricatures who imitate known real life stars.Brent is afine character, but the ultra-spunky Tina will drive readers to hop, skip,and jump some of her passages. Leonard Foglia and David Richardsdemonstrate their insider knowledge of Hollywood and Manhattan, but need towork on their outer borough accent.

Harriet Klausner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An accurate and warm sharing of memories on the river
I read this book and every fishing trip I have ever been on came rushing back. As I read I could feel the weight of the fly vest on my shoulders and smell the campfire. No one other than a down home salmon fisherman could have written this book. While he fished the Mirimichi I fished the Restigouche and once had the privilidge of meeting his Uncle, Richard Adams, on the Matepedia.
I know the beauty of the land and the feeling of a line tighten under a heavy fish, Everything is so real, from the sound of the water and the singing of a reel being stripped of its line down to the irritating buzzing of the bugs. He speaks of the friendships on the river so accurately one knows it is not fiction.
A wonderful read that I tore through and will sit down again to read it again to savour anything I may have missed.
My only regret is there were only 5 stars to give it.

Like Walden, but more interesting
This book is a joy to read. Richards tells his stories of the Miramichi as if you're around the campfire with him, and spins fish tales, one after another, not really connected but somehow all connected, till when youfinish you feel you've somehow received wisdom. David Adams Richards is amaster ---- I believe he's one of this era's great writers.Summary: Thebook is like Walden, but more interesting.

Beautiful comparison of life's subtelties and fly fishing
David Richards truly expresses the beauty and subtlety of fly fishing magnificenly. Whether a fly fisherman or not, this book truly is an enjoyable read. Through detailed and off-beat decriptions of his life andhis love of the river, he reminds me why I love to read! ... Read more

Product Description
An invasion? For teenagers Dryfly Ramsey and Shadrack Nash, poor and ignorant in the world's terms but rich in the lore of the magical Miramichi, the annual influx of American anglers, with their money, fishing gear, and thirst for salmon seems like one, and it sets the stage for action. A cast of quirky, unforgettable characters - Nutbeam, a large-nosed, floppy-eared hermit; Shirley, Brennan Siding's toothless postmistress and Ramsey family matriarch; and Buck, who appears once a year to sire another child - conspire to capture the imagination in Herb Curtis's now classic novel. And what of the Whooper, that mystical beast whose cries result in amazingly tall tales? In The Americans are Coming, the voices of Brennan Siding ring out in the rich vernacular of New Brunswick's Miramichi region,a world immersed in myth, folklore, and the sulpherous belch of a nearby pulp mill, and where ghosts and demons are as real as the Lone Ranger or the spring run of gaspereaux.With a new afterword by David Adams Richards. ... Read more

Product Description

Widely considered to be one of Canada's most important authors, David Adams Richards has been honoured with a Giller Prize and two Governor General's Literary Awards. Despite this, there has been a dearth of critical appraisal of his life and works. In David Adams Richards of the Miramichi, Tony Tremblay sheds light not only on Richards' art and achievements, but also on Canadian literary criticism in general.

Tremblay maps out the early influences on Richards' thinking and writing by drawing on interviews, archival records, and cultural studies of New Brunswick. He argues that the author is a more sophisticated craftsman than his critical reception has assumed and makes the case for a more nuanced analysis of his works. Equal parts literary biography, literary criticism, and cultural study of New Brunswick, David Adams Richards of the Miramichi provides a rare glimpse into the struggles and triumphs of a New Brunswick artist in a national and provincial milieu.

Product Description
David Adams Richards:Essays on His WorksEdited by Tony TremblayDavid Adams Richards is one of Canada’s foremost writers. A writer of poetry, short fiction, screenplays, nonfiction, essays and polemics, Richards’ most prodigious work thus far has been as a novelist. With fifteen books and all of the major Canadian literary prizes to his credit,Richards is still relatively unknown by the reading public. This collection, the first book-length study of Richards’ work, is meant to remedy that situation. Richards’ interview with the editor and opening essay situate his own beginnings as a writer and his dogged persistence in staying the course.Essays by Wayne Curtis, Margo Wheaton, Fred Gogswell, Lawrence Mathews, Inge Sterrer-Hauzenberger, Pamela Jo Boggs, Wayne Johnston, Eric Trethewey, Frances MacDonald, Herb Wyile, William Connonor, Tony Tremblay, Russell Perkin, Sheldon Currie and Alistair MacLeod. ... Read more

Product Description
In his major new novel, The Friends of Meager Fortune, Richards explores the dying days of the lumber industry in the mid-twentieth century. This is a transfixing love story of betrayal, envy, and sexual jealousy, which builds to a tragically inevitable climax. It is also a devastating portrait of a pre-mechanized time, and a brilliant commemoration of the passing of a world. Rich with all the passion, ambition and almost mythic vision that defines David Adams Richards' work, The Friends of Meager Fortune is a profound and important book about the hands and the heart; about true greatness and true weakness; about the relentlessness of fate and the evil that men and women do. Wise, stark, and without a false word in it, it cements David Adams Richards' claim to be the finest novelist at work in Canada today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Friends of Meager Fortune
David Adams Richards has done a terrific job of describing the mid-twentieth century Canadian lumber industry. He has provided the reader with a wonderful cast of characters who are all affected by a vicious rumor. I wanted to reach inside the book and shake the characters, who not only believed the rumor, but did nothing to find the truth. Two soldiers become involved with a woman married to one, but attracted to the hero. When her husband disappears, the rumor spreads through the small town.

In the meantime, the logging goes on, the loggers endure the treacherous terrain to get the logs to the river, the valiant horses perform their duties, and the Canadian winter provides unbearably harsh conditions for the loggers. The story includes a faux murder that gets tied into the original rumor, the hero of the story is accused of the murder on the basis of the discovery of a mutilated and unidentified body. All the while, Meager Fortune, who does not appear until well into the story, is taking care of the loggers on the mountain. He is the one who discovers the betrayal of one of the loggers who is tagging the logs with a competitor's stamp. But he does not report this betrayal. In the end, the hero dies an heroic death, and the long-lost husband reappears, putting an end to the long-running rumor that had virtually destroyed reputations and resulted in the conviction of an innocent man for the death of another man, who never died.

This book was so well written. The characters were well described, and I (and I hope other readers) was able to empathize with the rumor victims. I cried real tears when Owen died, breathed a sigh of relief when Reggie reappeared, and wanted to give Meager Fortune a hug for his undying dedication to his logging buddies.

Kudos, Mr. Richards. I loved your book.

"A man like many here would not live in the world to come."


Mid-twentieth century Canada is a time of vast change in the lumber industry, although few can see the decline of the old ways that looms on the horizon, massive amounts of timber moved by the grueling labor of men who have defined their lives in the felling and harvesting of trees. Will Jameson, who takes over his family's business upon the death of his father, is only sixteen when he achieves the status of legend. But Will's untimely death, though prophesied by a palm-reader, throws younger brother Owen into the breech, Owen forever fighting the long shadow of his more accomplished and manly sibling. Even though he has returned from the war a hero, Owen cannot measure up in the eyes of the town. It is never Owen's intent to save his family's fortune, but he feels obligated to aid his widowed mother, the stoic and gullible Mary.

Owen's problems emerge through the power of gossip and innuendo. His war hero status deteriorates as the town whispers of his obsession with Camellia, wife of Reggie Glidden, Will's best friend. Undeniably attracted to Camellia, Owen's affection remains innocent, Camellia the unwary manipulator of the situation as she encourages Owen to take over the company and help her locate the now-missing Reggie. Soon the rumors reach a deafening roar; with Reggie's mysterious disappearance, it is assumed that the couple has done away with the man who stands in their way. That this is mere supposition carries no weight in the world of public opinion, especially when a story is circulated by Lula Brower, a vain young woman set to appropriate Owen for her fiancé until felled by a stroke that alters her fortune as a marriageable woman.

Meanwhile, Own throws himself into the lumber business, desperately harvesting the timber in one of the most dangerous areas of growth, his men held barely in check with their internal feuding and petty grievances. While some, like Meager Fortune, remain loyal to Owen, others allow themselves to be seduced by Owen's rivals, further complicating an already dangerous endeavor to save the Jameson's interests. When an unidentified body is found floating in the river, despite the fact that it is too decayed to be recognizable, the town assumes the worst, pointing the finger of guilt at the suspected miscreants, Owen and Camellia.

As the industry is doomed in its present incarnation, so too are the innocent lovers, tried by public opinion, rumors flying from mouth to mouth in lieu of facts with amazing speed. The locals gather gossip, embellishing it at will, passing it along to strangers until no semblance of the truth remains, the town seething with rancor at an assumed crime. In a rapidly changing century, where mechanization is on the rise, this sad drama plays out against the majesty of the great wooded forests providing sustenance for families who spend their time spilling lies to alleviate their uncertainty. Seen through the telescope of time, the history of an era is rendered insignificant compared to the gratuitous evil of careless and vicious words. Luan Gaines/2007.
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