The Colony Of Unrequited Dreams

An indispensable masterpiece' Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist

Wayne Johnston is the author of five novels, including the internationally acclaimed The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, published in 1999 and shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award, and The Divine Ryans, which has been filmed starring Pete Postlethwaite.  Wayne Johnston was born in Newfoundland and now lives in Toronto.

Wayne Johnston is a brilliant and accomplished writer' Annie Proulx 
 
Shortlisted for two major literary awards in Canada, Wayne Johnston's epic novel of his native Newfoundland has been universally praised in the United States and in Britain. Taking the career of Newfoundland's first premier, Joseph Smallwood, as its starting point, it is a mystery, a love story and a tragi-comic elegy to an impossible country stranded on the brink of the world. 
 
'Ambitious and sweeping . . . it weaves around Smallwood a glowing fiction threaded through with the story of the island itself. As with The Shipping News, the unforgiving landscape of the island is wonderfully captured' Dominic Bradbury, The Times 
 
'An insider's paean of love and regret for his vanished land' Marcel Berlins, National Post (Ottowa) 
 
'Mesmerizing . . . a novel of cavernous complexity that nevertheless doesn't overwhelm the reader, who can repose in pure narrative without a second thought' Luc Sante, New York Times Book Review 
 
'A long, impassioned, absorbing novel . . . bravura storytelling' Denis Drabelle, Washington Post

The Divine Ryans

Set in Newfoundland, the novel filmed with Pete Postlethwaite, from the author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

'An absolute stunner...Achingly funny, needle sharp and packing an unexpected wallop...The literary equivalent of a small-budget movie masterpiece with heart, soul and brains'

'Wonderful...Wayne Johnston is one of the most entertaining writers in Canada, endlessly inventive, with a marvellous sense of pacing'

Wayne Johnston is Canada's Roddy Doyle" Anne-Marie McDonald, author of Fall Down on Your Knees 
 
Young Draper Doyle Ryan lives in a most peculiar household. His relations, proudly eccentric and passionately Catholic, run a rather shabby newspaper, a funeral home, a convent and an orphanage. When they're not attending wakes or going to confession, they're watching Hockey Night in Canada, cheering for their beloved -- and Catholic -- Montreal Canadiens in their never-ending jousts with the Protestant Toronto Maple Leafs. 
 
A bewildered Draper Doyle tries to make sense of all this. But he's plagued by the first stirrings of his own budding sexuality. Then there are the sudden ghostly appearances of his recently deceased father. What is the secret behind that death, he wonders. And will the Habs beat the Leafs and win the Stanley Cup? 
 
Canadian reviews: 
"An authentic comic genius" Montreal Gazette 
"An absolute stunner -- achingly funny, needle sharp and packing an unexpected wallop . . . The literary equivalent of a small-budget movie masterpiece with heart, soul and brains" Time Out

Baltimore's Mansion

A glowing personal memoir of Newfoundland told through the story of his own family by the internationally acclaimed author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

'Much more than a memoir, it is a non-fiction novel...a work of astonishing beauty and power'

I am foreborn of spud runts who fled the famines of Ireland in the 1830s, not a man or woman among them more than five foot two, leaving behind a life of beggarment and setting sail for what since Malory were called the Happy Isles . . .' 
 
So begins Baltimore's Mansion, Wayne Johnston's story of his grandfather Charlie, his father Arthur and of the small community of Ferryland on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, founded as a Catholic community by Lord Baltimore in the 1620s. Charlie, a fisherman and blacksmith, is an ardent Newfoundland nationalist. His son Arthur, forced from boyhood to fish the freezing seas with his father, vows never to earn his living from Newfoundland's dangerous waters, and leaves the island in the heady months leading to the fateful 1948 referendum held to decide Newfoundland's future. While Arthur is away Charlie dies and Newfoundland cedes its independence to Canada, plunging Arthur into a lifelong battle with the personal demons that haunted the end of their relationship. 
 
In 1981, aged 23, Wayne Johnston himself leaves Newfoundland and old patterns threaten to repeat themselves. At times harrowing, at others both moving and funny, Baltimore's Mansions speaks to us all about the hardships, blessings and power of family relationships, of leaving home and returning.

The Navigator Of New York

'A stunning saga of betrayals, blizzards, atonement and ice... A rare talent, and one on par with those of both Thomas Hardy and William Maxwell' - Independent on Sunday

Intricate and touching... As ambitious as it is intelligent... Reinforces Johnston's right to be considered one of the major figures in Canadian fiction

Johnston's skill at marrying the political and historical with the personal and a spellbinding sense of place is remarkable

Johnston is one of the finest writers on the scene

Wayne Johnston was born and raised in the St John's area of Newfoundland. He is the author of five previous novels including The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, which was an international bestseller and will be made into a film. Johnston is also the author of an award-winning and bestselling memoir, Baltimore's Mansion. He lives in Toronto.

At the centre of The Navigator of New York is the rivalry between Robert Peary and Frederick Cook to be the first American to reach the North Pole. Its protagonist, however, is Devlin Stead, a young man from St John's, Newfoundland. 
 
Devlin's mother dies, in mysterious circumstances, when he is only five, and he endures a lonely childhood before discovering the truth about his parentage. That discovery transforms his life: he finds his true father and embarks on a journey of unbelievable risk. 
 
His adventure brings him celebrity, acclaim from New York 'society', real love, and finally the truth about the bitter feud between two strange, driven men.

Wayne Johnston

Rich, flamboyant and tragicomic… A grand and glorious Gothic romance

A wondrous writer - of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what's truly interesting to tell about life

A literary giant who has god-given talent

A poetic and very deft observation of the nature of the bond between parent and child

Drawing on the real-life Vanderbilt legend, this is a strange, utterly original novel, essentially about fathers and sons

There’s a powerful sense of the emotional blackmail and deceit that keeps Druken tied to the premises of his nemesis

Landish Druken, son of a Newfoundland sealing captain, is a formidable figure - broader than most doorways, quick-witted and sharp-tongued. He turns his back on family tradition and leaves St John's to head to Princeton University, where he is befriended by 'Van' Vanderluyden, son of the wealthiest man in America. When Landish is betrayed by Van he is banished from Princeton and his hopes crumble. 
 
Back in St John's, Landish adopts an orphan, Deacon. With nothing but trust, humour and compassion, he raises Deacon alone until poverty leaves them with nowhere to turn, but to Van. They journey to North Carolina where Van has built Vanderland, a huge and magnificent castle. There they are swiftly pulled into Van's web of lies and deceit, and Landish and Deacon's bond is truly tested.

Wayne Johnston

Praise for A World Elsewhere

A brilliant and accomplished writer

Rich, flamboyant and tragicomic… A grand and glorious Gothic romance

A wondrous writer - of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what's truly interesting to tell about life

A brilliant and accomplished writer

Rich, flamboyant and tragicomic… A grand and glorious Gothic romance

A wondrous writer - of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what's truly interesting to tell about life

A brilliant and accomplished writer

Rich, flamboyant and tragicomic… A grand and glorious Gothic romance

A wondrous writer - of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what's truly interesting to tell about life

Books by Wayne Johnston

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