We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night

• We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night wonthe Governor General's Literary Award for fiction

Scrappy tough guy and three-time loser Johnny Keough is going a little stir-crazy awaiting trial for an alleged assault charge involving his girlfriend, Madonna, and a teapot. Facing three to five years in a maximum-security prison, Johnny knows this might just be the end of the road. But when Madonna doesn't show up for court due to a fatal accident, shell-shocked Johnny seizes his unexpected "clean slate" as a sign from above and embarks on an epic hitchhiking journey across Canada to deliver her ashes to a fabled beach on the outskirts of Vancouver.

• The great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150

Johnny's wanderings see him propelled in and out of the driver's seat of stolen cars, knocking heads with cagey cops, nearly decapitated by a moose, coming face-to-face with his incarcerated biological father in a Kingston jail, and finding surprising connections with strangers on the lonely road west. But most of all, he revisits the choices and mistakes of his past his relationships with his adoptive father and a cousin who meant the world to him, and his first real chance at love with the woman who is now lost to him.(From HarperCollins Canada)

• How Joel Thomas Hynes was surprised by his main character

Author Interviews | Read an excerpt

Author interviews

The Next Chapter2:02Day Job: Joel Thomas Hynes

The author of Say Nothing, Saw Wood on his (very brief) stint as a security guard.

From the book

Explore the Governor General's Literary Award winners: