“Chad Pelley’s first novel explores the nature of mistakes alongside the devastating errors of human choice. What shines from this novel is Pelley’s ability to convey his lead character’s pain and inner turmoil; his misery lifts real from the page. We should look forward to the honing and unfolding of this writer’s evolving voice.”

- Bruce Johnson, Atlantic Books Today

“Complex themes woven tightly together … this is a story about brothers, a story of families, entwined and unbound. It is a story of longing, and romance. And it is a story of consequence. There is a streamlined dynamic to the structure and the prose, as riveting and inevitible as a car flying off the wet highway. And the structure is tightly built as a racecar chasis. A very good book.”

- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram

“Brilliantly crafted through thought provoking sentence structure Away from Everywhere will make any reader believe they are one with what they are reading … [a] masterpiece.”

- Ivana Pelisek, Interoobang

Click here to buy or read more about Away from Everywhere

Visit Tina’s blog to participate and  win a free copy of the novel, or just to read some of the answers.

Though it wasn’t Tina’s intention, the fact that the main character is a female mechanic will stand out for many readers. In the words of the author, “In my new novel,  Jennifer is a mechanic … Although the book isn’t trying to make any political statements, and Jennifer’s job is not the main focus of the novel, by making Jennifer a mechanic I’ve called some attention to how unusual it is to find women in some fields … So, I’m having a contest to celebrate women in non-traditional work and I want to hear from you!”

Also: Congratulations to Tina for her novel landing a spot in Belletrista’s “New and Noteworthy” North American book list, along side Mavis Gallant, Marina Endicott, and more! See the list here: http://www.belletrista.com/2009/issue2/nandn_5_us.phphttp://www.belletrista.com/2009/issue2/nandn_5_us.php

Click the link below to listen to the interview: http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/nlwamgaloot_20091114_23074.mp3

Telegram publisher Charlie Stacey (left) chats with 2009 Cuffer Prize winner Chad Pelley of St. John's. Pelley won the $2,000 award for his short story "Holes to China."- Photo by Gary Hebbard/The Telegram

Click here to read the article in The Telegram

Click here to read Salty Ink’s feature article, and Chad’s “Holes to China.”

Click here to read all about Chad’s new novel Away from Everywhere

The Newfoundland armed forces suffered devastating losses during World War I. Known unto God is a memorial to the men in these forces who died during the war and who have no known graves. The book is also a companion guide to the Memorial Bronze Tablets that list their names. The tablets were first unveiled at the Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont-Hamel, France, in 1925. Replicas of the tablets were erected in 2009 in Bowring Park in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Known unto God celebrates these men’s contributions and includes period memorabilia and photographs from private and public collections, some of which have never been published.

Click here to buy or read more about Know unto God

“It opens up in the aftermath of a car crash, and does not let up from that brutal, mid-crisis opening. Away from Everywhere is dotted with slamming phones, speeches regretted after-the-fact, and the pain of silences.”

- Ashley Fitzpatrick, The Telegram

Click here to buy or read more about Away from Everywhere

Breakwater Books is pleased to announce that the French World Rights to the novel Silence of Stone have been sold to Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur Inc., a Quebec-based publisher.

Silence of Stone, the third novel from author Annamarie Beckel, is a critically acclaimed re-imagining of the true story of a young French noblewoman, Marguerite de Roberval, who was abandoned by her guardian on the Isle of Demons, a small island near Newfoundland and Labrador in 1542.  Critics have described the novel as “a deeply emotional tale” (Downhome), “well-written and stylistically distinctive” (Current Magazine) and “succinct, graphic, and lyrical” (The Telegram).

Formerly an ecologist and science writer and then a newsletter editor on an Ojibwe Indian reserve, Annamarie Beckel now lives in Kelligrews, NL. Her first novel, All Gone Widdun, won the first place fiction prize from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and was acclaimed as “richly imagined, beautifully structured… a captivating story, very well told.” (Globe and Mail). Her second novel, Dancing in the Palm of His Hand, was hailed by critics as “remarkably well researched” (Atlantic Books Today) and “powerful, thought-provoking, highly recommended” (Hi-Rise).

If you are interested in interviewing Annamarie Beckel or receiving a book for review purposes, or using the above images in an article, contact Breakwater.

Click HERE to buy or read more about Silence of Stone

The top-10 titles are:

1. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
3. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
4. The Mountain and the Valley by Ernest Buckler
5. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
6. Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan
7. Random Passage by Bernice Morgan
8. The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod
9. Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
10. Rockbound by Frank Parker Day

Also in the top 100: Percy Janes’s classic, House of Hate, cited by famed authors Michael Winter and Joel Thomas Hynes a book that really got them into writing.

Click the title to read more about or buy Random Passage or House of Hate