The Last Crossing

(Paperback)

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Description

Charles and Addington Gaunt must find their free- spirited brother, Simon, who has gone missing in the wilds of the American West. They enlist the services of a guide to lead them on their journey across a harsh and unknown landscape. This is the enigmatic Jerry Potts, half Blackfoot, half Scottish, who suffers his own painful past. They are joined by Lucy Stoveall, a woman filled with rage and sorrow over the loss of her young sister Madge who was brutally murdered. She is on a vengeful mission to track down and kill the murderous Kelso brothers. The group is joined by a jumble of other characters en route, each of whom are forced to confront their own demons. But at the novel's centre is a love story. Vanderhaeghe glides effortlessly through the patois and frontier talk, faultlessly switching from cultured English characters to American roughnecks to Scots-Canadians, and the natural prairie landscape is evoked brilliantly.

Reviews

'At heart this is a story about love and its tragicomic dependence upon character. This is a rich, emotionally intelligent, vital novel - a treat to read' Salley Vickers, Observer 'Terrific...high-minded and compulsively readable. A first-rate read - consequential and thoughtful when it comes to the complexities of character, but unapologetically populist in its appreciation of a good yarn. This is popular serious fiction of a high order' Douglas Kennedy, The Times

Author Bio

Guy Vanderhaeghe is the author of six books of fiction. THE ENGLISHMAN'S BOY (1996) was a long-time national bestseller and won the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.