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
Gold medal for best fiction from the Canada West region, Independent Publisher Book Awards
Finalist, ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards
A deck of playing cards is discovered, each card inscribed with a fragment of a story. S has kept a playing card face down for 26 years without looking at it.
S studies daily in the threatened Dunsmuir House Library in Vancouver while the one-eyed Dean Truman sells a one-volume encyclopaedia door to door. Deborah possesses an obsidian mirror with mysterious powers. And on the Caribbean island of St Lucia another card lies guarded face down in the mud, preparing for an exotic patenting ceremony.
The structure of the book is disordered – there are several different story lines, being slight variations of each other and of the characters involved. The book includes two joker chapters and an “Inface” (cf. Preface), which is set “in” after the first three chapters.
The reader may be tempted to look at – but should not! – the concealed playing card on the inside of the back cover.
Contributor Notes
Michael Hetherington has bachelors degrees from Queen’s University and the University of British Columbia and a masters degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
His published books to date include: The Late Night Caller (Turnstone Press, 2003); The Archive Carpet (Passfield Press, 2012); The Playing Card (Passfield Press, 2013); Halving the Orange (Passfield Press, 2014); and, Hooked (Passfield Press, 2014). His first novel, The Playing Card, won the gold medal for best fiction from the Canada West region – 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a finalist in the literary fiction category – ForeWord Reviews 2013 Book of the Year Awards. Halving the Orange was a finalist in the same category in the ForeWord Reviews 2014 Awards. In 2015, Hooked was named a Shelf Unbound Notable 100 for 2015.
He has appeared in many events – including on the radio, Pandora’s Collective’s Twisted Poets Literary Salon, LitFest NewWest, and Surrey Libraries’ “Authors Among Us” – promoting his books. Michael’s work – including excerpts from The Late Night Caller and The Archive Carpet – has been published in literary magazines such as: Blood & Aphorisms, Exile, Geist, Lichen, The Malahat Review, Matrix, ON SPEC, and The New Quarterly.
He has a son and daughter and lives in North Vancouver. Visit Michael Hetherington’s website at michaelhetherington.ca.
Awards
- Winner, best fiction from the Canada West region – Independent Publisher Book Awards
- Short-listed, literary fiction category – ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards
