Heroes

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Available again in Canada as part of Biblioasis’ new Reprint Series, and now available in the U.S. for the first time, Ray Robertson’s Heroes, in the words of Quill & Quire, “captures the tenor of life with a vivid emotional precision,” and is “a sublime novel.”

Peter Bayle — heavy drinker, philosopher to-be, anemic lover — somehow finds himself in Kansas, writing a feature article on middle America’s newfound love for hockey. There he meets, among others, a morphine injecting Reverend, a reviled reporter, a teenage drug dealer, and an ex-crack addicted figure-skating team mascot. Yet the more embroiled he becomes in the politics of his strange and self destructive new friends, the more he’s haunted by the things he’s abandoned back home in Toronto: a relationship failing, an academic dissertation imploding, money problems mounting, and grief over his sister’s death.

A deliciously uncomfortable story of a smart man pushed up against the boards, Heroes walks the edge between bravery and bruise-chasing, in a world where sometimes you need to play dirty to get a fresh start.

Praise for Heroes

Robertson has been called ‘word drunk.’ That’s good . . . his prose is undoubtedly major-league. There’s wit and wisdom in abundance, delivered in clever, punchy style.

Globe and Mail