About the Author:
GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ has been published worldwide in English and in manyother languages in more than fifteen territories. The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees were international bestsellers, and were both finalists for the prestigious Giller Prize. The Cure for Death by Lightning won the UK’s Betty Trask Prize, the BC Book Prize for Fiction and the VanCity Book Prize. Both A Rhinestone Button and her most recent novel, Turtle Valley, were national bestsellers. She lives in the Shuswap in southcentral British Columbia, the landscape found inso much of her writing.
Review:
Nominee - 2017 Forest of Reading® Evergreen Award™
Shortlisted - 2017 Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction
“Beginning with the most stunning opening chapter I’ve read in years, The Spawning Grounds envelops us in its electric currents: the mysteries of a troubled family, a damaged nation, a defiled river, and the great rich spirit of the sockeye salmon—climaxing in a storm of lives struggling to renew themselves and the spirit of a magical place.” —Brian Brett, award-winning author of Trauma Farm and Tuco: The Parrot, the Others and the Scattershot World
“You must read The Spawning Grounds, a stunning tour de force about the conflict between cultures, generations, nature and man. Magical yet profoundly down to earth, Gail Anderson-Dargatz tells stories within stories, shifting back and forth through time, to create a kaleidoscopic tapestry, unified by the frightening presence of a spirit seeking to right wrongs. I was so deeply moved by this beautifully written, spellbinding novel I read it twice.” —Sandra Gulland, author of the internationally bestselling Josephine B. Trilogy
"Anderson-Dargatz has set the bar dauntingly high for every new work; it’s a measure that The Spawning Grounds more than meets. . . . The Spawning Grounds is a powerful, complex mélange of story forms and approaches, including magic realism, domestic drama, historical fiction, and stories about coming of age and coming to the end of life, leavened with elements of romance and considerable humour and understanding. Anderson-Dargatz writes with a direct, often subversive appeal to narrative, powerful storytelling, and skilfully drawn characters carrying complex social, political, cultural, and spiritual conflicts with an unobtrusive ease.” —The Georgia Straight
“[W]orth the wait. In the undercurrent of The Spawning Grounds is a clever recasting of the man versus nature story, as nature versus man. Anderson-Dargatz weaves in environmental concerns and the effects of climate change without letting them overwhelm a story that is ultimately about loss, debilitating grief and the power of redemption. . . . [W]riting as fluid as the river that runs through the story. . . . With insight and intimate knowledge of small-town life, she takes on the sensitive topic of the culture clash that continues to plague native-white relations, rendering both non-native and First Nations characters as excruciatingly real people. A master storyteller, Anderson-Dargatz sets out with a tale of the familiar and seamlessly takes the reader where they never imagined they could go. With her deceptively simple prose and all-too-human characters, she woos the reader into suspending any disbelief in the mythical world and accompanying Hannah and Brandon on their journey into the spiritual.” —Toronto Star
“Sharp imagery and spare dialogue are put to good use in Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s ghost tale. . . . [V]ividly drawn.” —The Globe and Mail
“The Canadian novelist writes what’s sure to be classic literature.” —Huffington Post
“Part love story and part family drama combined with a thrilling dollop of magic realism. . . . Cinematic in its scope, the novel explores some of Anderson-Dargatz’s favourite themes—the environment and the fearsome double-edges of domestic life.” —Edmonton Journal
“[A] must read this fall.” —The Manitoulin Expositor
“[G]enerally well-tuned novel. . . . The Spawning Grounds is a fine addition to Anderson-Dargatz’s ongoing efforts to mine a vein of rich and complex cultural geography.” —Quill & Quire
“Gail Anderson-Dargatz writes lovely novels about unlovely people: unlovely people who grow beautiful under her compassionate, masterful, sly authorial gaze.” —Quill & Quire
PRAISE FOR TURTLE VALLEY:
“Exquisite. . . . Anderson-Dargatz creates a strong sense of the complexity of ordinary life.” —The Globe and Mail
“Turtle Valley lives up to [Anderson-Dargatz’s] gothic reputation, with ghosts dashing out from behind the farmhouses, mysterious flocks of ladybugs clinging to the ceilings, stoves leaping to life at strange hours and horrible secrets hiding in the family well. . . . It’s a tense, passionate story of family and memory, haunting and history.” —Vancouver Courier
“Ghosts weave in and out of the smoke, decades-old passions are re-examined, life-changing options present themselves, life and loss continue, unabated. It’s both haunting and haunted (as it’s both a romance-mystery and a ghost story) and it carries powerful magic all its own.” —The Hamilton Spectator
“Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s latest is part mystery, part memory story, part eco-conscious tale, but a rare take on illness in the context of a marriage is what makes Turtle Valley a winner. . . . Along with the passion, there’s suspense, too. The raging fires just keep getting closer. This is a haunting novel with emotionally haunted characters. Gripping.” —NOW (Toronto)
“In Turtle Valley, her fourth novel, Gail Anderson-Dargatz captures place with her trademark exquisite sensory detail. . . . Anderson-Dargatz creates a strong sense of the complexity of ordinary life. Her use of the concrete gives rise to the power of feeling through the stark juxtaposition of thing and idea. . . . the author is skilled at peeling back the layers of love, commitment and confusion that most families experience.” —The Globe and Mail
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