Four Days

In Four Days, an orphaned boy watches as his older brother and idol graduates from petty thievery into big-league crime. A bank heist goes awry, leaving loose threads and dangerous links back to the brothers. Following instructions, the boy leaves the city with the stolen money and travels to a rendezvous point in a mountain vacation resort. What he doesn’t know is that he is on his own, his brother will not show up—and the underworld is after him. Buell’s second novel, Four Days was first published in 1962 by Farrar, Straus & Cudahy in the United States and Macmillan in the UK.

John Buell (1927-2013) was a lifelong resident of Montreal, where he taught English and Communication Studies at Concordia University. Upon his retirement in 1987, he was made professor emeritus. Buell’s five novels—The Pyx (1959), Four Days (1962), The Shrewsdale Exit (1972), Playground (1976), and A Lot to Make Up For (1990)—were lauded by Edmund Wilson, amongst other prominent critics. Three of Buell’s novels have been made into feature films. Trevor Ferguson is the author of seven novels under his own name and six under his pseudonym, John Farrow. One of his novels, The Timekeeper, became a feature film. His most recent title is Perish the Day. He lives in Hudson, Quebec.