Wayne Johnston is a brilliant and accomplished writer' Annie ProulxShortlisted for two major literary awards in Canada, Wayne Johnston's epic novel of his native Newfoundland has been universally praised in the United States and in Britain. Taking the career of Newfoundland's first premier, Joseph Smallwood, as its starting point, it is a mystery, a love story and a tragi-comic elegy to an impossible country stranded on the brink of the world.'Ambitious and sweeping . it weaves around Smallwood a glowing fiction threaded through with the story of the island itself. As with The Shipping News, the unforgiving landscape of the island is wonderfully captured' Dominic Bradbury, The Times'An insider's paean of love and regret for his vanished land' Marcel Berlins, National Post (Ottowa)'Mesmerizing . a novel of cavernous complexity that nevertheless doesn't overwhelm the reader, who can repose in pure narrative without a second thought' Luc Sante, New York Times Book Review'A long, impassioned, absorbing novel . bravura storytelling' Denis Drabelle, Washington Post.