Paul Bowdring

Paul Bowdring

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Strangers’ Gallery, a novel.

Quick description: An “historical” novel set in present-day St. John’s , Newfoundland.

St. John’s archivist Michael Lowe’s life is turned on its head when a Dutch acquaintance, Anton Aalders, arrives on his doorstep in 1995. Anton is searching for a father he never met, ostensibly a Newfoundland soldier who was part of the Allied forces that liberated the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. Anton’s visit stretches from a few days to a few months, reluctant as he is to go in search of his father, and keen to learn as much as he can about Newfoundland, its history, and its people. Rabble-rouser and ardent Newfoundland patriot Brendan “Miles” Harnett, Michael’s friend and sometime bugbear, is obsessed with his own search for the lost “fatherland” of Newfoundland, which relinquished its political independence in 1934. Miles is only too eager to teach Anton—and Michael—the shameful, forgotten history (as he sees it) of the lost country of Newfoundland.

Brief biography:
Paul Bowdring is the author of three novels: The Roncesvalles Pass, The Night Season, and The Strangers’ Gallery, which won the 2013 Winterset Award, the 2014 Nfld. Heritage & History Award, has been nominated for the 2015 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and is on the Long Shortlist for the 2014 ReLit Awards. He lives in St. John’s.

Links to buy Paul’s book:
Nimbus Publishing
Chapters-Indigo – paperback
Kobo – eBook
Amazon – eBook & paperback
and bookstores across Canada

Paul’s promo links:
Nimbus Publishing
Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)
Writers’ Alliance of NL (WANL)

What are you working on now?
Finished a fourth novel tentatively scheduled to be published by Nimbus in fall 2015.

Paul’s reading recommendation:
Just finished re-reading (every year!) my very favourite novel: Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989), remarkable in so many ways, but for me, as a writer, its outstanding control of voice and tone is second to none. And I am always reminded of Ezra Pound’s remark: “Literature is news that stays news.”