Critics' Opinion:
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Published Jan 2012
448 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
A dazzling follow up to The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing.
Wesley Case is a former soldier and son of a Canadian lumber baron who sets out into the untamed borderlands between Canada and the United States to escape a dark secret from his past. He settles in Montana where he hopes to buy a cattle ranch, and where he begins work as a liaison between the American and Canadian militaries in an effort to contain the Native Americans' unresolved anger in the wake of the Civil War. Amidst the brutal violence that erupts between the Sioux warriors and U.S. forces, Case's plan for a quiet ranch life is further compromised by an unexpected dilemma: he falls in love with the beautiful, outspoken, and recently widowed Ada Tarr. It's a budding romance that soon inflames the jealousy of Ada's quiet and deeply disturbed admirer, Michael Dunne. When the American government unleashes its final assault on the Indians, Dunne commences his own vicious plan for vengeance in one last feverish attempt to claim Ada as his own.
"This tension draws out a potentially tedious journey of paper-shuffle politics into a cohesive high-stakes drama." - Publishers Weekly
"Do the Mounties always get their man? Read this satisfying
novel and find out." - Kirkus
"Vanderhaeghe is often compared to Larry McMurtry, and rightfully so, for his muscular prose readily conveys not only the nuanced love story but also the rugged beauty of the western landscape and the chaotic battle scenes that haunt his protagonists." - Booklist
"Remarkable... Deeply satisfying... There are, characteristically, bountiful and varied pleasures to be had in A Good Man... Vanderhaeghe's descriptions of the natural world [are] often as striking as Cormac McCarthy's... A Good Man caps a towering achievement worthy of celebration as loud as our humble voices can declare." - The Globe and Mail
"Vivid... A love story, a thriller, a Conradian meditation on courage and manhood, and a thoughtful examination of the origins of Canada's tangled relationship with its big southern neighbor... Vanderhaeghe has delivered an epic that matches its grand ambitions." - Winnipeg Free Press
"A rollicking story as large as the prairie is wide... The story unfolds with consistent charm and erudition." - Quill & Quire
This information about A Good Man was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Adrian Ewins
Guy Vanderhaeghe was born in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1951. He writes plays, short stories and novels. He has thrice won the Governor General's Award for Fiction, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Giller Prize and the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In 2003, Vanderhaeghe was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2013, he received the Lieutenant Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, Saskatchewan's highest honour in arts. He currently lives in Saskatoon, and teaches creative writing as an evening class at St. Thomas Moore college at the University of Saskatchewan.
Name Pronunciation
Guy Vanderhaeghe: van-der-haig
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