Strays, Ed Kavanagh’s first work of fiction since the award-winning novel The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, features ten memorable stories that explore the lives of those who somehow find themselves adrift. In “The Strayaway Child” a ninety-year-old woman recalls her girlhood during the Great Depression when she was a “sad, silent little nobody”; in “The Red Merc” a boy learns deep truths about his often absent father; and in “The Wind” a Newfoundlander in a big Canadian city struggles with issues of identity. Affecting, finely crafted, and often humorous, Strays speaks, ultimately, to our desire to belong.

What one critic said about The Confessions of Nipper Mooney applies equally to Strays: “Kavanagh writes beautifully . . . poignantly illustrating how experience shapes character . . . . The lyrical cadence of the writing is reminiscent of Alistair MacLeod, making it a book that begs to be read aloud.”