From Amazon
David Adams Richards writes about people from the wrong side of the tracks with poignancy and compassion. Nights Below Station Street is set, like all of Richards's work, in small-town New Brunswick, and it begins a trilogy that continues with two other novels set in the Miramichi Valley, Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down. Written in an easy-flowing, realistic mode, this deceptively simple novel explores the day-to-day lives and trials of a handful of concisely drawn, compelling characters. Adele is a feisty girl of 15, strong-headed, entering adulthood in a tumbling erratic rush. Her mother, Rita, who watches children and cleans houses, is solid and hard-working, the pillar of the family, which also includes the father, Joe, a hapless but cheerful drunk, and Milly, a younger daughter. Their familial relationships are complicated by their friendship with Myrrha, who lives nearby in a trailer with her spoiled, chubby son Byron.
One reason why Nights Below Station Street won the 1988 Governor General's Award for fiction (he won the same award for non-fiction 10 years later for Lines on the Water) may be Richards’s talent for capturing the everyday speech patterns of his characters. When Adele complains to her boyfriend Ralphie about her Christmas gifts, "This here isn't nothing compared to what I got last year," the reader can easily picture the look of adolescent petulance on her face. In the end, these ordinary people are tested by the various trials of their difficult lives, and while they never end up in any simulacrum of paradise on earth, they do come through their struggles with fortitude and a kind of rough wisdom, their humanity intact. --Mark Frutkin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Praise for Nights Below Station Street:
“David Adams Richards has illuminated the human struggle for love and belonging.…”
–Maclean’s
“Richards depicts his characters with such searing fidelity that we are forced to marvel at his talent.”
–Globe and Mail
“An exploration of the nature of love and the process of redemption.…”
–Ottawa Citizen
“A warning label should be attached to every copy: You’ll hate for this book to end.”
–Halifax Daily News
From the Hardcover edition.
“David Adams Richards has illuminated the human struggle for love and belonging.…”
–Maclean’s
“Richards depicts his characters with such searing fidelity that we are forced to marvel at his talent.”
–Globe and Mail
“An exploration of the nature of love and the process of redemption.…”
–Ottawa Citizen
“A warning label should be attached to every copy: You’ll hate for this book to end.”
–Halifax Daily News
From the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
David Adams Richards’ Governor General’s Award-winning novel is a powerful tale of resignation and struggle, fierce loyalties and compassion. This book is the first in Richards’ acclaimed Miramichi trilogy. Set in a small mill town in northern New Brunswick, it draws us into the lives of a community of people who live there, including: Joe Walsh, isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita, willing to believe the best about people; and their teenage daughter Adele, whose nature is rebellious and wise, and whose love for her father wars with her desire for independence. Richards’ unforgettable characters are linked together in conflict, and in articulate love and understanding. Their plight as human beings is one we share.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Back Cover
Praise for Nights Below Station Street:
“David Adams Richards has illuminated the human struggle for love and belonging.…”
–Maclean’s
“Richards depicts his characters with such searing fidelity that we are forced to marvel at his talent.”
–Globe and Mail
“An exploration of the nature of love and the process of redemption.…”
–Ottawa Citizen
“A warning label should be attached to every copy: You’ll hate for this book to end.”
–Halifax Daily News
“David Adams Richards has illuminated the human struggle for love and belonging.…”
–Maclean’s
“Richards depicts his characters with such searing fidelity that we are forced to marvel at his talent.”
–Globe and Mail
“An exploration of the nature of love and the process of redemption.…”
–Ottawa Citizen
“A warning label should be attached to every copy: You’ll hate for this book to end.”
–Halifax Daily News
About the Author
David Adams Richards was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, in 1950. He has published ten acclaimed novels, including the award-winning Miramichi trilogy – Nights Below Station Street, winner of the 1988 Governor General’s Award; Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace (1990), winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award; and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down (1993), winner of the Thomas Raddall Award – Hope in the Desperate Hour (1996), The Bay of Love and Sorrows (1998), and, most recently, Mercy Among the Children (2000), co-winner of the prestigious Giller Prize. In 1993, Richards received the Canada-Australia Prize.
Richards has also published three non-fiction books, most recently the Governor General’s Award-winning fishing memoir Lines on the Water (1998), and has written Gemini Award-winning screenplays for the CBC-TV adaptations of his novels For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down and Nights Below Station Street. “Small Gifts,” his original screenplay for CBC-TV, won a Gemini Award and the New York International Film Festival Award for Best Script.
Richards now lives in Toronto with his wife, Peggy, and their two sons.
From the Hardcover edition.
Richards has also published three non-fiction books, most recently the Governor General’s Award-winning fishing memoir Lines on the Water (1998), and has written Gemini Award-winning screenplays for the CBC-TV adaptations of his novels For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down and Nights Below Station Street. “Small Gifts,” his original screenplay for CBC-TV, won a Gemini Award and the New York International Film Festival Award for Best Script.
Richards now lives in Toronto with his wife, Peggy, and their two sons.
From the Hardcover edition.
