Inukshuk

"A gifted writer."Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered "[Spatz offers] what I look for in any book: people I can dream myself into and be remade in the process."Dorothy Allison, author of Trashand Bastard Out of Carolina "One of the most innovative and unusual fictional incarnations I've ever read of the persistent allure of Sir John Franklin's final, fatal Arctic voyage. It's a remarkable accomplishment."Russell Potter, author of Arctic Spectacles John Franklin has moved his fifteen-year-old son to the remote northern Canadian town of Houndstitch to make a new life together after his wife, Thomas' mother, left them. Mourning her disappearance, John writes poetry and escapes into an affair, while Thomas, isolated and bullied, withdraws into a fantasy recreation of the infamous Victorian-era arctic expedition led by British explorer Sir John Franklin. Artistically gifted yet dangerously obsessive, Thomas gives himself scurvy so that he can sympathize with the characters in the film of his mindand is almost lost himself. A poignant tale of the vulnerability of adolescence interspersed with powerfully evoked scenes of the legendary Franklin crew's descent into despair, madness, and cannibalism on the Arctic tundra, Inukshukoffers readers a modern family drama as well as a compelling historical adventure. Gregory Spatzis the author, most recently, of the novel Fiddler's Dream. His stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and recipient of a Washington State Book Award, he teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane and plays the fiddle in the JUNO-nominated bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds.