I recently had the opportunity to host a book club fundraiser with my friend @jenlavallee.
A writer in our city is facing a difficult cancer diagnosis, and so we wanted to show our support by hosting a fundraiser to help her raise some money toward her own fundraising efforts to go to a clinical trial, which she has to pay for out of pocket. It was an incredible night where we talked about writing, stories, and life… and, of course, the novel!
We selected a book for our book club written by a local author named Laurel Deedrick-Mayne.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
A Wake for the Dreamland moves us from the particular and concrete—pulled off with expert historical research, bringing readers along from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Wartime Europe and back to Alberta while exploring the intricate, complicated relationships between three friends. The novel demonstrates the distinct impacts of war on individual families and reveals its devastating ripple effects.
The novel written, in part, in letters provides an intimacy that traditional historical records – those often reductive docuements that focus on key players and major events, the things we learn about in classrooms—to something that we can connect with on a real and personal level. This novel demonstrates the power of fiction.
This wartime world is the one the novel is rooted in, but it also asks those bigger, more universal questions that take us beyond this historical moment and allow this book to resonate with anyone that has ever loved, loved and lost, and questioned their own personal truths.
Importantly, this novel, filled with bombings and booming scenes of war is also one of a quiet hope. And it is that quiet hope that made this book so perfect for our fundraiser.
If you’re looking for your next good read, I highly recommend the Canadian novel A Wake for the Dreamland! And, I'm curious, what are you reading lately?