Robin Blackburn McBride reads from The Shining Fragments, her upcoming new novel
The Shining Fragments is a family saga about the Irish in Canada that explores the ramifications of abandonment, obsession, love, memory, and visionary power.
Spanning the years 1882-1904, it follows Joseph Conlon from his early childhood in Ulster to his experiences of youth and adulthood as an immigrant. Left behind as a small boy on a Toronto train-station platform like so much forgotten luggage, Joseph grows up in a city bleak with bigotry. He discovers that he has artistic talent and becomes a designer of stained-glass windows.
He is haunted by the spirit of his unborn sister, Annie, and the powerful and often conflicting influences of the women in his life.
Here is a convincing drama of an Irish boy who, after being abandoned in Union Station, seeks to make himself a life. What appealed to me is that the story is uniquely set in a well-researched, turn-of-the-century Toronto. The struggling characters come from all classes and, most important, their dramatic interactions are told with a gripping, compassionate power.
—Wayson Choy, Order of Canada, novelist, memoirist, short-story writer
ROBIN’S INTERVIEWS FOR THE SHINING FRAGMENTS LAUNCH
Interview with Louise H Reid
Delighted and also moved to discover a two-page feature on my novel, The Shining Fragments, in the current edition of Celtic Canada Thanks to Eleanor Reynolds and her team for making this happen.
