After Light by Catherine Hunter
UWinnipeg professor of English and winner of the Manitoba Book of the Year award, Catherine Hunter is launching her anticipated new novel, After Light on Friday, October 23 at 7:00pm at McNally Robinson Booksellers.
It’s a sumptuous new novel spanning four generations of the Garrison family. The story begins in Ireland. Young Deirdre, forced into marriage at sixteen, never stops trying to regain her freedom, though her ruthless escape threatens to destroy her family. Her son, Frank, raised in Brooklyn, dreams of becoming an artist, but that dream is ended when he’s blinded in WW2. With fierce determination, Frank forges a new life for himself, moving to Canada and marrying. But the war has shaken him deeply. His wife and his two daughters, Von and Rosheen, live in constant fear of his violent outbursts.
At a time when Canada’s debt to our veterans is highly controversial, and the long-term effects of war trauma are raising concern worldwide, this novel presents an in-depth exploration of the making and the breaking of a hero, the drama of his rehabilitation, and the cost to his family. The daughter of a wounded war veteran herself, Catherine Hunter beautifully captures the complicated nuances of the after effects of war.
