Here the Dark
David Bergen
From the streets of Danang, Vietnam, where a boy falls in with a young American missionary, to fishermen lost on the islands of Honduras, to the Canadian prairies, where an aging rancher finds himself smitten and a teenage boy's infatuation reveals his naivet, the short stories inHere the Darkchronicle the geographies of both place and heart. Featuring a novella about a young woman torn between faith and doubt in a cloistered Mennonite community, David Bergen's latest deftly renders complex moral ambiguities and asks what it means to be lostand how, through grace, we can be found. (FromBiblioasis)
Here the Dark wason the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist.
The book features the storyHow Can n Men Share a Bottle of Vodka?, which won the 1999 CBC Short Story Prize.
David Bergenis a Canadian novelist and short story writer. In 2005, his novelThe Time in Betweenwon the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His other books includeThe Matter with Morris,andStrangerin 2016.His novelThe Age of Hopewas defended by Ron MacLeanonCanada Readsin 2013.
Giller Prize jury citation:"A dying woman asks an aging rancher to become her last lover. A fishing boat sputters to a halt off the coast of Honduras, compelling its owner to decide the fate of his repellent client. A young woman in a puritanical religious community glimpses the coloured world outside, and must choose whether to close her eyes, or to run. Sexual loneliness and moral confusion pull at the delicately wrought characters in David Bergen's latest work, a story collection of masterly skill and tension. His third appearance on the Giller shortlist including the 2005 winner,The Time in Between affirms Bergen among Canada's most powerful writers. His pages light up; all around falls into darkness."
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