Review
[Gaston's] descriptions bring people and places vibrantly alive, and his prose shimmers with colour, humour and passion...[his] voice is utterly and thoroughly his own. (Chronicle Herald 20080608)
The Order of Good Cheer is a challenging and provocative book... (Georgia Straight 20080708)
...extraordinary...one of the most talented writers currently on the Canadian literary scene....The Order of Good Cheer is a feast of nuanced writing, blessed with one of those rare endings that are absolutely perfect. Gaston has crafted a bittersweet ode to friendship, loss, and near-hopelessness that lingers in the mind long after the story has come to a close... (Winnipeg Free Press 20080901)
...[Gaston] writes with a refreshing ground-level accuracy...[and] takes his readers on a very long and interesting trip through both time and space, without splattering them with ketchup or spilling drinks in their laps. Since this is a novel about food, that's really something. (Vancouver Review 20080601)
...The novel could be viewed as a cousin to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas...[a] daring, big-hearted work. (Montreal Gazette 20080608)
...[The Order of Good Cheer is a] daring, big-hearted work. (Montreal Gazette )
The writing is wonderful, the characterizations strong...The Order of Good Cheer was difficult to set aside and will be impossible to forget. (January Magazine )
The Order of Good Cheer is a challenging and provocative book... (Georgia Straight 20080708)
...extraordinary...one of the most talented writers currently on the Canadian literary scene....The Order of Good Cheer is a feast of nuanced writing, blessed with one of those rare endings that are absolutely perfect. Gaston has crafted a bittersweet ode to friendship, loss, and near-hopelessness that lingers in the mind long after the story has come to a close... (Winnipeg Free Press 20080901)
...[Gaston] writes with a refreshing ground-level accuracy...[and] takes his readers on a very long and interesting trip through both time and space, without splattering them with ketchup or spilling drinks in their laps. Since this is a novel about food, that's really something. (Vancouver Review 20080601)
...The novel could be viewed as a cousin to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas...[a] daring, big-hearted work. (Montreal Gazette 20080608)
...[The Order of Good Cheer is a] daring, big-hearted work. (Montreal Gazette )
The writing is wonderful, the characterizations strong...The Order of Good Cheer was difficult to set aside and will be impossible to forget. (January Magazine )
Book Description
Indian summer, 1607. Intrepid explorer and map-maker Samuel de Champlain has founded a new and precarious settlement in Annapolis Royal, New France (present-day Nova Scotia). As winter looms, two threats emerge: boredom amongst the men and the deadly sickness scurvy. Champlain hits upon the idea of a moveable feast ߞ an order of "good cheer" ߞ where nobles and men can enjoy good local food, excellent wine, and camaraderie. Separated by the breadth of a continent and exactly four hundred years is twenty-first-century blue-collar worker Andy Winslow and his friends, whose urban landscape is threatened by encroaching environmental and economic disaster. In alternating narratives, award winning author and master storyteller Bill Gaston bridges the divide across land and time in this illuminating story about survival, love, friendship, and feast. (20080601)
From the Publisher
The break-out novel from one of Canada's most revered, award-winning, and inventive writers. Gaston's last book with Anansi, Gargoyles, was a finalist for the GG and a Globe "Top 100" book. His previous collection of stories, Mount Appetite, was a finalist for the Giller Prize. This new novel has all the promise of those books coupled with the narrative drive of a great novel.
About the Author
Bill Gaston is the author of several much-praised story collections and novels, including Sex is Red, The Good Body, Mount Appetite, and Sointula. Gargoyles was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and won the ReLit Award and the City of Victoria Butler Prize. In 2002, Gaston was a finalist for the Giller Prize (Mount Appetite) and the inaugural recipient of the Timothy Findley Prize, awarded by the Writers' Trust of Canada. Bill Gaston lives with his wife, writer Dede Crane, and family in Victoria, British Columbia.
