Nova Scotia: Shaped by the sea : a living history

Choyce, Lesley

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Coles Publishing

The Republic of Nothing opens in the 1950s on Whalebone Island at the moment Everett McQuade decides to commemorate the birth of his son by declaring the island's independence. In this world of deliberate eccentricity, almost anything can happen. A treasure?trove of objects wash up on shore -- including a circus elephant, a ship's cargo of exotic furniture and a mysterious raven?haired woman adrift in a lifeboat -- and refugees from the outside world find a place where they can cultivate their eccentricities in peace. By the mid?1960s, Whalebone Island begins to succumb to the influences of the outside world. Children attend school on the mainland. Everett McQuade is drawn into provincial politics. Electricity arrives. But even the Vietnam War, the peace movement, and the discovery of uranium mining on the island, cannot destroy the anarchic spirit of Everett McQuade and the citizens of the Republic of Nothing. Drawing upon historical incident and the major political and philosophical currents of the 1960s, Lesley Choyce has created a novel about resilience, independence and cultivated anarchy in which everything is nothing and nothing is everything.

The Republic of Nothing

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Goose Lane Editions

When their farm gets expropriated to make way for the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, Alexander McNab and his family move to Saint John. Without the magic of the Bay of Fundy, without the bright companionship of his little sister, Alex grows up a lonely, insecure failure. At 30, he's had enough; to make a clean break, he moves to Halifax. There, he is hired as a counsellor at New Dawn, a rehabilitation workshop, even though he has no professional qualifications. Alex soon becomes part of the New Dawn family, and the distinction between the helper and the helped blurs. The key may be that Alex takes for granted the wholeness in each of these damaged adults. Blind Jeff, 17, knows everything about cars, so Alex takes him out to the parking lot and teaches him to drive. In turn, Alex is adopted by Cornwallis Itwaru, a descendent of Jamaican Maroons plagued by encroaching Alzheimer's, who firmly adjusts Alex's fuzzy thinking. Alex sees right away that Gloria Vincent, who suffers from schizophrenia, has adopted a sloppy dress and ugly glasses as camouflage for her intelligence and beauty, and his discovery does not wholly displease her. Unfortunately, New Dawn goes broke, but by the time the landlord padlocks the doors, Alex has learned that living life fully doesn't depend on external circumstances.

World Enough

Contemporary

The Republic of Nothing opens in the early 1950s on Whalebone Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, when Everett MacQuade marks the birth of his son be declaring the island's independence. From then on, mysterious happenings take place and refugees from the outside world find a place there. By the mid-1960s, the Republic of Nothing begins to succumb to the influences of the outside world. This is a novel about resilience, independence, and anarchy.

GLE Library

The world has taken notice. From Alistair MacLeod's recent IMPAC literary award, through movies based on the work of David Adams Richards and Sheldon Currie, to the epic television series based on the work of Bernice Morgan, the international community has soundly acknowledged the critical and commercial success of Atlantic writers. Atlantica is the first major anthology of Atlantic fiction since Best Maritime Short Stories was published in 1988 and showcases stories by some of Canada's most exciting authors — established, newly popular, and emerging. Given the regional penchant for storytelling, it's not surprising that the Maritimes and Newfoundland produce a continuous stream of spellbinding writers. Among the stories in Atlantica are Anne Simpson's Journey Prize-winning "Dreaming Snow," Carol Bruneau's "The Tarot Reader," "Batter My Heart" by Lynn Coady, Bernice Morgan's "Poems in a Cold Climate" "The Train Family" by Joan Clark, "Missing Notes" by David Helwig, "The Party" by Herb Curtis and "Clearances" by Alistair MacLeod. Readers from "away" will recognize Sheldon Currie's hilariously gothic tale "The Glace Bay Miner's Museum" as the basis of Helena Bonham Carter's acclaimed movie Margaret's Museum. Some stories have been excerpted from novels, including David Adams Richards's The Bay of Love and Sorrows, Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, John Steffler's The Afterlife of George Cartwright, and Donna Morrissey's Kit's Law. Remarkably diverse in age, style, and cultural identity, the writers in this anthology raise a common voice that defines Atlantic Canada. Each with an individual approach to language and writing, they offer a collective view of the east, conscious of tradition but not confined by it. By turns funny, poignant and pensive, the stories in Atlantica firmly place eastern Canadian culture on the world map of literature.

Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland

Wilson, Budge

JOHNSTON, Wayne

MacLEOD, Alistair

Bruneau, Carol

Curtis, Wayne

Morrissey, Donna

Morgan, Bernice

Currie, Sheldon

Coady, Lynn

Baxter, Joan

Simpson, Anne

Steinfeld, J.J.

Steffler, John

Helwig, David

Curtis, Herb

Hull, Maureen

Fogwill Porter, Helen

Adams Richards, David

Clark, Joan.

From the days before the arrival of the Europeans in North America, when the original inhabitants of our country made their way across a small land bridge, to todays arrival in supersonic jets, there is one sight that is shared by all new Canadians — the countrys dramatic coastline. In this eclectic history of the seas elemental power over Canadas coastal peoples, Lesley Choyce brings to life the heroes and villains, the Aboriginals and the Europeans, the great and the humble, and the intrepid but ill-prepared explorers, who discovered,” travelled through, and inhabited Canadas east, west, and north coasts. Brimming with shipwrecks and rescues, roguery and virtue, and stories of overcoming unimaginable odds, The Coasts of Canada is both idiosyncratic and iconoclastic. For once,” writes Choyce, let the mid-continental tales of Canada be relatively mute, and let the narratives of a coastal people reshape our visions of who we are.” As benevolent as it is brutal, the sea has controlled Canadas history and shaped the countrys collective identity. At once a book of discoveries and a record of misunderstandings, errors and misjudgements, The Coasts of Canada features the stories of hardy souls who persevere in difficult realms. It is also a plea to preserve the good things of the sea, the coastal communities, and the fragile environment that constitutes three borders of this country. A coast-dweller himself, Lesley Choyce is an irrepressible storyteller. His first major work of history, the bestselling Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea, was praised by Laurier LaPierre in The Globe and Mail as a poets affair with the sea” and an appealing work of storytelling.” In The Coasts of Canada, he carries his enthusiasm for good stories to all of coastal Canada.

The Coasts of Canada: A History

History

Americas

Winner, Dartmouth Book Award Shortlisted, Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award
A small Canadian island declares its independence to the world and benign anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960s blaze off shore and draw the island's inhabitants into politics, the Vietnam War, and the peace movement. Sound impossible? Not on Whalebone Island, AKA the Republic of Nothing. Where else can a dead circus elephant, a long-dead Viking, the discovery of uranium, a raven-haired castaway who may be psychic, an anarchist turned politician, and refugees fleeing from the United States all be part of everyday life? Where else is eccentricity embraced with such open arms? In this new readers' guide edition, complete with an afterword by Neil Peart, Lesley Choyce's novel about resilience, independence, and anarchy comes alive, leading readers to discover once again that everything is nothing and nothing is everything.

The Republic of Nothing: Reader's Guide Edition

Good Idea Gone Bad

A timely novel about high school rock bands and teen violence.
Mick is a tough guy who likes playing the drums having a bad attitude. When he meets Darianna, he starts to realize there's more to life than beating up on people who are different.

Children's Books

Growing Up & Facts of Life

Formac

Mick and his high school friends call it street cleaning -- four of them beating up on one guy they don't like the looks of. Mick likes the action, but he'd rather be playing drums. In fact, he wants to get together with Dariana, who plays keyboards. But she writes songs about violence that make Mick and his friends look bad. Mick, Dariana and Alex, a guitarist, form a band that starts going places. Before they do, though, Mick's old friends come by to settle some scores. Set in Halifax's lively music scene, Good Idea Gone Bad is one of Choyce's nine young adult and children's novels published by Formac. Choyce writes and surfs at his home on Nova Scotia's eastern shore, and teaches at the English Department at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is the host of Off The Page, a national television show and, along with his band The Surf Poets, has recently recently released his second CD and third music video.

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Books by Choyce, Lesley