About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
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""Because ultimately, this is a story about unconditional love, about warming to the notion of commitment, about setting off on a voyage away from the shores of self-involvement and self-obsession. My Year of the Racehorse is a poignant, unsentimental, zappingly written and regularly side-splitting investigation of what it truly means to care about others, four-legged, and yes, even two."" -- National Post
The story of a man, a horse, and a foul-mouthed trainer in the (once) glamorous world of horse racing.
Kevin Chong has grand plans. He draws up a to-do list of major milestones that will give him the life he always wanted -- and the life that will inspire awe and envy in his friends. Then Chong makes an unconventional decision: he buys a racehorse. He becomes part-owner. Just don't ask him which part. Thus Chong meets Blackie, the horse that will win his heart, even if she doesn't always win the race. He meets Randi, the cantankerous trainer with a heart of gold. He meets assorted characters who work, live, and drink at the track. And, one by one, the items on his to-do list are replaced with horse-related ambitions.
Written with keen observational humour, My Year of the Racehorse is strewn with fascinating tidbits and infused with the excitement and faded glamour of the horseracing world. Ultimately, it is the moving tale of a young man's discovery that a meaningful life can arise from the most unexpected of circumstances.
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About the Author
Kevin Chong is the author of seven books, including the novels The Plague, Beauty Plus Pity, and Baroque-a-Nova and the memoir My Year of the Racehorse. His work has been published in Canada, the US, France, Australia, and Macedonia, and has been shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Fiction Prize and a National Magazine Award. He lives in Vancouver, where he teaches in the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Program and at The Writers' Studio at Simon Fraser University.
