Sylvanus Now

Praise for
Sylvanus Now

“Like the rock where it was born, Morrissey’s voice is at once haunting and heartbreaking, lyrical and pure. Anyone still looking for identity in Canadian fiction can call off the search.”

—Brad Smith, author of
Big Man Coming Down the Road

“Deft and deliriously romantic … When [Morrissey] steps back and lets her characters do the talking, the results are electrifying … acute and bleakly funny … It is a novel to be taken to heart.”

—
National Post

“There are detailed descriptions in this novel which are dazzlingly unique. Both physical and emotional landscapes are charted with care. A splendidly unique novel.”

—Alistair MacLeod, author of
No Great Mischief

“An epic novel of love and loss … It is an arresting tale, recounted in powerful, lyrical prose … Morrissey’s strong descriptive powers elevate the landscape of Newfoundland to the status of a living, breathing character in the novel.”

—
The Gazette
(Montreal)

“Morrissey’s strength is in the way she evokes the dialogue and lost culture of Newfoundland outports.”

—
Ottawa Citizen

“Donna Morrissey’s considerable descriptive talents paint a compelling picture … [Sylvanus and Adelaide] are strong and thoughtful individuals.”

—
Calgary Herald

“Skillfully rendered as a passionate love story as well as an exploration of the irreversible decline of the cod industry … In
Sylvanus Now
, Morrissey deftly captures the sorrows and passions of characters struggling unceremoniously to uphold tradition in the face of change.”

—
Winnipeg Free Press

“Tell it well, she does … Whether describing the women working on the flakes … or conversations between Sylvanus and his brothers and friends, Morrissey always hits perfect pitch.”

—
The Chronicle Herald
(Halifax)

“Perhaps Morrissey’s greatest asset as a writer is that ring of truth. From the verisimilitude with which she depicts life in the outports to the note-perfect dialogue to the rich and colloquial narrative voice, Morrissey rarely falters …
Sylvanus Now
is a powerful, moving evocation of lives and times long gone but close enough to be in living memory, a world vanished but brought vividly back to life in Morrissey’s caring hands.”

—
Quill & Quire

“[Morrissey] vividly evokes the Newfoundland way of life with refreshing honesty. With its details about a fishery so stunningly destroyed,
Sylvanus Now
is infuriating and troubling. Yet what’s hopeful is the [characters’] love, both heart-breaking and enduring.”

—
The Daily News
(Halifax)

“A beautifully written story about the struggle to maintain a unique identity … to remain true to ourselves as the world challenges our beliefs; and to continue to follow our dreams, despite things not always going as planned.”

—Downhomer Magazine (St. John’s)

“Absorbing human drama, in Morrissey’s best yet.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Morrissey generates a remarkable intensity of emotion here, and if the novel often seems oppressively sad, it is buoyed by the crispness of detail and the author’s ability to vivify the slow process through which an inner life is transformed.”

—Booklist

“Brilliantly displays multiple conflicts: between the individual and the state, tradition and progress, alienation and acceptance, and love of the land and the love of another.”

—Literary Review of Canada

Praise for Donna Morrissey

“There’s a sense in Morrissey’s writing that William Faulkner has met Annie Proulx … Morrissey is almost certain to set new boundaries in fiction in Canada.”

—
Atlantic Books Today

“Morrissey’s voice, innocent, wise, funny and boisterous, and so expertly tuned to the music of the Newfoundland dialect, is simply irresistible.”

—
Books in Canada

“A Newfoundland Thomas Hardy.”

—
The Globe and Mail

“If you haven’t read any Donna Morrissey, there’s a trio of wonder waiting … as lively as Newfoundland and as sweet as the sea.”

—
The Sun Times
(Owen Sound, Ontario)

“Morrissey knows of what she writes.”

—
Toronto Star

PENGUIN CANADA

SYLVANUS NOW

DONNA MORRISSEY
is the award-winning author of four novels,
Kit’s Law, Downhill Chance, Sylvanus Now
, and
What They Wanted
, all set in Newfoundland and all subsequently translated into several languages.
Kit’s Law
won the CBA Libris Award, the Winifred Holtby Prize, and the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Both
Downhill Chance
and
Sylvanus Now
won the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize, and
Sylvanus Now
was the winner of the Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award. Her screenplay,
Clothesline Patch
, won a Gemini Award. Morrissey grew up in The Beaches, a small fishing outport in Newfoundland, and now lives in Halifax.

ALSO BY DONNA MORRISSEY

Kit’s Law

Downhill Chance

What They Wanted

DONNA

MORRISSEY

Sylvanus Now

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada),

a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2005

Published in this edition, 2009

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 (WEB)

Copyright © Donna Morrissey, 2005

Illustration on page xi copyright © Bridgett Morrissey, 2005

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in Canada.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Morrissey, Donna, 1956

Sylvanus Now / Donna Morrissey.

ISBN 978-0-14-317032-7

1. Newfoundland and Labrador—Fiction. I. Title.

PS8576.O74164S94 2009      C813’.54      C2009-903803-X

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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