Stumbling toward redemption
May 09th, 2025
Many of the characters in Bill Gaston’s eighth collection, Tunnel Island (Thistledown $24.95), have dark backstories. Others lead unconventional, eccentric lives. Loneliness is widespread.
Gaston describes the fictional Island somewhere in the Salish Sea as: “mostly forest, but a few thousand people lived here and it had a bit of everything. A village they called Downtown. A small college. Huge estates, but also a soup kitchen.”
The eleven stories begin with Jack, a handyman who does odd jobs. Jack is so good at fixing worn-out lawn mowers, old boats and other miscellany, he’s nicknamed “the Junk Whisperer.” He’s seemingly trustworthy and many of the wealthy out-of-towners who own holiday residences pay Jack to look after their places while they sit empty. But Jack has a past that involves a marriage break-up and the loss of his daughter. He dreams of making a pile of money for his estranged child, which leads to a ruinous decision.
Other people in Gaston’s imagined coterie include a dying Wiccan and her loving partner; a transplanted New Brunswicker and loner who accidently made it big in the dot com era who has difficulties connecting with his nephew; a couple torn apart after the tragic and surreal disappearance of their baby daughter, who later remarry; and a lonely woman whose secret lover is about to meet an unhappy end. Publicity says the stories immerse readers “in a world rendered tender and tolerable by human folly and our stumbling attempts at redemption.” 9781771872683
Bill Gaston has won the Victoria/Butler Book Prize, the Writers’ Trust Timothy Findley Award (for a body of work, mid-career), the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction and the National Post Book of the Year. He lives on Gabriola Island. He has also been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Giller Prize. 978-1771872683
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