Estates Large and Small

Undefeated by decades of rent increases and declining readership, Phil Cooper's secondhand bookstore finally succumbs to COVID-19 and he reluctantly decides to move the business online. In the newfound quiet of cybercommerce, he starts to suspect he's been smoking a little too much pot, listening to a little too much Grateful Dead, and may be overdue on sorting out who he is and what he's doing here, and where, in fact we might all be going. So he makes another decision: to teach himself 2,500 years of Western philosophy. Thankfully, he's met Caroline, an ex-postal worker and fellow book lover, who agrees to join him on his quest.

But they'll have to hurry: Caroline has stage 4 cancer. Thankfully, they've got plenty of books, a stash of potent medical marijuana, and the Dead to see them through. It's going to be a long, strange trip. Profound, perceptive, and wryly observed,Estates Large and Smallis the story of one man's reckoning and an ardent defense of the shape books make in a life. (FromBiblioasis)

Estates Large and Small is available in April 2022.

Ray Robertson is a novelist based in Toronto. His bookWhy Not? Fifteen Reasons to Livewas shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfictionand longlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize for Nonfiction. His other nonfiction books includeHow to DieandLives of the Poets (with Guitars).

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Interviews with Ray Robertson

Afternoon Drive9:34Lives of the Poets, With Guitars

Chatham author Ray Robertson is in Windsor for a book launch tonight.He joined me in studio to talk about "Lives of the Poets, With Guitars".

The Next Chapter43:33"I Was There the Night He Died" author Ray Robertson (Interview)

Talks to Shelagh about the novel in an onstage interview.

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust finalist: Ray Robertson

13 years ago

Duration 1:47

CBC's Paul Kennedy reads from Robertson's book Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live.

Other books by Ray Robertson