The Boys in the Trees
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A tragic event sends a small town reeling in Mary Swan's brilliant, Scotiabank Giller-nominated The Boys in the Trees, a haunting exploration of one family's desperation. For the first time in Vintage Canada.
William, his wife and 2 daughters, new immigrants to a small town in southern Ontario, are the picture of a devoted family. But when he is accused of embezzlement, William commits an unthinkable crime, and those who believed him to be an affectionate, attentive father are brought up short. Mary Swan examines the intricate and unexpected connections between the people in this close-knit community that continue to echo into the future. In her nuanced, evocative descriptions, a locket contains immeasurable sorrow, trees provide refuge for lost souls and grief clicks into place when a man cocks the cold-steel hammer of a revolver.
A supreme literary achievement, The Boys in the Trees offers a chilling story that swells with acutely observed emotion and humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Swan's gloomy, uneven first novel (after The Deep and Other Stories) explores how late 19th-century smalltown Canada deals with a horrific crime. William Heath leaves his native England with his young family, eventually landing in Emden, Canada. But just as the family is feeling settled, William is accused in the local paper of embezzlement, and as the scandal peaks, William kills his family. He's sentenced to death, and the novel is taken over by a cross-section of locals a teacher, a doctor, a boy curious about the facts of the crime who share their thoughts about the Heaths. These sketches demonstrate the author's writerly talents, but with each section, the plot drifts further afield to little effect. Though there are plenty of beautiful passages, the novel's structure undermines any emotional connection made early on.
