The Town That Drowned - Softcover

Nason, Riel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864926405 ISBN 13: 9780864926401

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions, 2011

Synopsis

Living with a weird brother in a small town can be tough enough. Having a spectacular fall through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. But having a vision and narrating it to the assembled crowd solidifies your status as an outcast.

What Ruby Carson saw during that fateful day was her entire town - buildings and people - floating underwater. Then an orange-tipped surveyor stake turns up in a farmer's field. Another is found in the cemetery. A man with surveying equipment is spotted eating lunch near Pokiok Falls. The residents of Haventon soon discover that a massive dam is being constructed and that most of their homes will be swallowed by the rising water. Suspicions mount, tempers flare, and secrets are revealed.

As the town prepares for its own demise, 14-year-old Ruby Carson sees it all from a front-row seat. Set in the 1960s, The Town That Drowned evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home. Deftly written in a deceptively unassuming style, Nason's keen insights into human nature and the depth of human attachment to place make this novel ripple in an amber tension of light and shadow.

Winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize (Canada and Europe)
Winner of the 2012 Margaret and John Savage First Book Award
Longlisted 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Living with an eccentric little brother can be tough. Falling through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. But having a vision and narrating it to assembled onlookers? That solidifies your status as an outcast.

What Ruby Carson saw during that fateful hallucination was her entire hometown — houses and people — floating underwater. Then an orange-tipped surveyor stake appears in a field, another in the cemetery. Soon everyone discovers that a massive dam is being constructed and their homes will eventually be swallowed by rising water. Suspicions mount, tempers flare, long-simmering secrets are revealed. As the town prepares for its demise, 14-year-old Ruby watches it all from a front-row seat.

Set in the 1960s, The Town That Drowned deftly evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place, any place, to call home.

About the Author:

The Town That Drowned is Riel Nason's debut novel.  It is the winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize (Canada and Europe) and the 2012 Margaret and John Savage First Book Award.  It is longlisted for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.  Riel Nason lives in New Brunswick, Canada with her husband and two young children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0864926405
• ISBN 13: 9780864926401
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280