Mary Cyr - Hardcover

Richards, David Adams

3.27

148 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385682484 ISBN 13: 9780385682480

Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2018

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A fresh new novel from a Canadian literary legend--this time with an extraordinary and unforgettable woman protagonist who is sure to become one of the great characters in our literature.

Mary Cyr opens in Mexico, just as a disaster strikes a small town: a coal-mine has collapsed, with thirteen men trapped inside. Less than forty-eight hours later, the authorities summarily decide to abandon all hope of finding survivors and seal up the mine entrance--willfully oblivious to the half-dozen souls still breathing below ground. Shortly after that, a thirteen-year-old Mexican boy, Victor, is discovered dead in the hotel room of a Canadian visitor--a 45-year-old woman, and heiress to a vast fortune, who goes by the name Mary Cyr.

Thus begins this shocking, brilliant and compelling novel--a late-career tour de force by one of our most unique and powerful writers. In his last couple of novels, David Adams Richards has widened the scope of his vision and his world, taking us into far-flung countries and lives even as his beloved territory of New Brunswick's Miramichi remains his touchstone, the spot to which all his stories return. In Mary Cyr, the unwinding tale will take us from a harsh jail cell in Mexico, where Mary Cyr is imprisoned, deep into Canadian police officer John Delano's past, and even further into the murky depths of a wealthy New Brunswick family whose ties to mining, newspapers and a host of other interests lead to the highest corridors of power. At the heart of this maelstrom lies a woman who is compromised and confused, but also poignant, wounded and well-intentioned: the beautiful and tragic Mary Cyr.

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About the Author:

DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS is one of Canada's preeminent writers. His recent novels include Principles to Live By, as well as Crimes Against My Brother and Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul, which were both longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Among his other recent novels, The Lost Highway was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Friends of Meagre Fortune won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. Mercy Among the Children won the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Trillium Award. Richards is also the author of the celebrated Miramichi Triology and has written four bestselling books of nonfiction: Lines on the Water, God Is, Facing the Hunter and Hockey Dreams.

Review:

A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2018

"Mary Cyr is a marvellously readable saga. . . . If you're a fan of Ruth Rendell's Barbara Vine books where character is the story, then Mary Cyr is for you." --The Globe and Mail

"Reading this novel is profoundly unsettling. Terrible things happen, and Richards presents them without holding anything back. I won't forget this book." --Quill & Quire

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