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The Tinsmith
The Tinsmith
The Tinsmith

The Tinsmith

ISBN: 9781926972435
$21.95

During the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, Anson Baird, a surgeon for the Union Army, is on the front line tending to the wounded. As the number of casualties rises, a mysterious soldier named John comes to Anson's aid. Deeply affected by the man's selfless actions, Anson soon realizes that John is no ordinary soldier, and that he harbors a dangerous secret. In the bizarre aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, this secret forges an intense bond between the two men.

Twenty years later on the other side of the continent, Anson discovers his old comrade-in-arms is mysteriously absent, an apparent victim of the questionable business ethics of the pioneer salmon canners. Haunted by the violence of his past, and disillusioned with his present, Anson is compelled to discover the fate of his missing friend, a fate inextricably linked to his own.

"Altogether, a story of impressive scope, and bristling with action." —Jack Matthews, author of The Gambler's Nephew

More About the Book

This vivid and passionate novel opens with the American Civil War, where after the battle of Antietam, we're told that men 'moved among the dead and wounded slowly as wasps over rotted fruit'; it's such writing that makes Tim Bowling's novel memorable—that, and its range, for it ends nineteen years later in western Canada, with two of the major characters. Altogether, a story of impressive scope, and bristling with action. —Jack Matthews, author of The Gambler's Nephew

Bowling is a remarkable writer. The Tinsmith is well-served by meticulous research which serves to provide believable settings for the action of this novel. From the battlefields and the cast of characters found there—embalmers, soldiers (from both sides), civilians who came to sightsee, the ladies holding handkerchiefs over their mouths, the photographers who set up their darkroom wagons and provided first-hand visual accounts of the carnage—to the fogs of the Fraser River, he takes the reader into the heart of the dark drama unfolding in these pages. —Harbour Spiel

The most interesting sections of The Tinsmith, which take place during a turf war among the upstart salmon canneries in frontier-era British Columbia, give the book a heart that's undeniably Canadian . . . there's something wonderful about the way these ruthless cannery owners give a little added mythological heft to Canada's west coast. —Edmonton Journal

Published:

March 6, 2012


Format:

Paperback / softback Trade paperback (US)


Page Count:

320


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