The Fortunate Brother

"Once dubbed "our Thomas Hardy" by Alastair MacLeod, Morrissey delivers a powerful novel about a Newfoundland family coping with a murder on their doorstep and the loss of a son. In The Fortunate Brother, beloved East Coast storyteller Donna Morrissey completes her trilogy of the Now family, Newfoundland fisherfolk first uprooted from the outport and then devastated by the loss of a son working on an Alberta oil rig. This novel focuses on Kyle, who is still mourning his dead older brother, Chris. But soon the murder and drowning of a local bully, Clar Gillard, proves more than distracting as the police cordon off the Now house. The victim's blood was found on the family's pier, and suspicion falls first on Clar's alienated wife, then in the Now family. Behind the turmoil is the quieter but no less intense drama of the aftermath of Chris's death. Father Sylvanus Now drowns his sorrow in a bottle, and mother Addie is facing breast cancer. Tension exists between Kyle and Sylvie Now, unresolved as long as Kyle fails to confront his anger over his sister's role in getting Chris a job on the oil rig. It's not all sorrow and darkness. Morrissey's trademark humour lightens the tone, and there is the Newfoundland patois that takes cursing to new flamboyant levels. A cast of memorable characters surrounds the Now family, some intriguing, some comical, but all finely drawn and fully realized. As the mystery of who killed Clar Gillard unfolds, other deeper secrets are revealed. Wise in the ways of the heart, The Fortunate Brother is both a whodunnit and a moving family drama from a unique writer."--