Mister Nightingale

Paul Bowdring

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ISBN: 9781771083799

Mister Nightingale

  Author:   Paul Bowdring    
  Publisher:  Nimbus Publishing

After a thirty-year exile in Toronto, self-described “mid-listing” Newfoundland author James Nightingale leaves behind a failed marriage to a successful classical musician, who has taken up with an avant-garde composer, and a middling, if critically successful, career to return temporarily to St. John’s to receive an honourary degree from his alma mater. Braving the obstacles of artistic and domestic uncertainty and neglected family obligations?not to mention a book-signing and a launch that go visibly wrong?he meets old friends whose own artistic lives have borne little fruit, and contends with a talented daughter who, in defiance of her mother, has abandoned her classica-music roots in favour of performing “deconstructed” traditional Newfoundland songs, a father suffering from dementia but with a sharp memory of disappointment, and an untrustworthy former publisher who is re-releasing his seminal first novel.

Imbued with the language of literature, the imagery of a Newfoundland in flux, and the grace of an author at the height of his powers, Mister Nightingale is at once a diatribe on the vicissitudes of the writing life, and a keen and poignant exploration of one man’s coming to terms with the “prevailing anxieties” of la vie quotidienne.

Details and Specs
ISBN associated with this title: 9781771083799
Item NB1210
PublisherNimbus Publishing
PublisherNimbus Publishing
Published on April 14 2016
Language eng
Pages 352
Format Paperback
Dimensions9(in) x 6.25(in)
Shipping weight550(g)
Status ACTIVE TITLE
Paul Bowdring is the author of three previous novels, The Roncesvalles Pass, The Night Season, and The Strangers’ Gallery, the latter the winner of the BMO Winterset Award and a nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He has worked for many years as an English teacher and editor. He was a longtime editor of TickleAce magazine and is currently an associate editor with The Fiddlehead. He lives in St. John’s, NL.

Quick Quotes

A rich and expansive novel, comic and erudite, wise and down-to-earth in its depiction of the joys and disappointments in the modern world.
  

The Strangers' Gallery will confirm Paul Bowdring's reputation as one of the most insightful, witty, and readable Newfoundland writers of his generation ... An alegy for a certain vision of Newfoundland, an examination of the way in which the past, both collective and personal, impinges upon the present, and a meditation on the ways in which we give meaning to our lives.
  

Award Winners & Nominees


BMO Winterset Award (NF and L Arts Council)

Nominated International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award