Rough Paradise

By (author): Alec Butler

Born with an Intersex condition in a rough, working-class city, the harassment and hate Terry Tomey experiences for being bi-gendered and Two-Spirit drives them to the brink of suicide–yet they are saved by the love and acceptance of Darla. The two incur the wrath of their families and their community as they fall in love and graphically explore their queer sexuality. Forcefully separated, they spend the next twenty years trying to find each other and to uncover the real truth as to why they were kept apart.

AUTHOR

Alec Butler

Award-winning playwright and filmmaker, Alec Butler’s play “Black Friday”, was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award for Drama in 1991. His film trilogy about growing up Trans/Intersex/2Spirit, “Misadventures of Pussy Boy,” was recently awarded the Best Short/Audience Favourite Award at the International Transgender Film Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He lives in Toronto, ON.

Reviews

“”Spurway’s use of language is skilful, making the novel highly readable. Crow is ribald, blunt, accessible, and immediately likeable, tumours and all … You know how people say, “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry”? You will. And you will.””
Quill & Quire

“”Ridiculously good.””
Globe and Mail

“”Crow delighted me and amazed me the further I read, with its freshness, its daring, its refusal to conform (and the projectile vomiting).””
Pickle Me This

“”Angry, petty, disillusioned, sharp-tongued, battered and bruised by the years, prone to snap decisions and judgments, and yet not a little scared of dying at 40, she’s a complex and contradictory figure whose narrating tones relay very human traits — fallibility and indomitability, blindness and insight — via homespun, salty language.””
Toronto Star

“”How can you resolve the sharpness of tragedy into a fairy-tale ending? Somehow, Spurway manages it. But even if she lays the sentimentality on pretty thick, she also proves even a Crow’s laughter can be pretty infectious.””
Winnipeg Free Press

“”Tender, raw, and compassionate, Crow tackles the life-changing events thrown at her and muscles them down to her control, leaving readers breathless in the face of her honesty and hard-earned truths.””
“”Amy Spurway comes out swinging with this raw, unflinching, and emotionally urgent debut novel. Be forewarned, Crow is as empowering and comic as it is unsettling and disarming. I love it.””
“”I think Crow is great. It depicts a side of Cape Breton populated by characters that are flawed and achingly real. It’s poignant and funny.””
“”Amy Spurway catches perfectly the engine that is Cape Breton Island. Her cast of divine lunatics, pogey-scammers, gossips, and big-hearted rebels, revealed through Spurway’s lively and lucid prose, proves that Cape Breton is still the thought-control centre of Canada.””
“”There is dark desperation and there is the lightness of hope.””
Canadian Literature

“”Engaging, relentlessly entertaining and written with enormous passion and great wit. Crow is a notable debut, and Amy Spurway is a writer worth watching.””
The Fiddlehead

“”The most hilarious book I’ve ever read, a narrative voice that gets locked in your head, and a story full of twists and turns and surprises.””
All Lit Up

Awards

There are no awards found for this book.
Excerpts & Samples ×
Born with an Intersex condition in a rough, working-class city, the harassment and hate Terry Tomey experiences for being bi-gendered and Two-Spirit drives them to the brink of suicide–yet they are saved by the love and acceptance of Darla. The two incur the wrath of their families and their community as they fall in love and graphically explore their queer sexuality. Forcefully separated, they spend the next twenty years trying to find each other and to uncover the real truth as to why they were kept apart.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

130 Pages
8.5in * 5.25in * 1in
1lb

Published:

May 31, 2014

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Quattro Books

ISBN:

9781927443620

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Literary

Featured In:

Pride Reads

Language:

eng

No author posts found.

Related Blog Posts

There are no posts with this book.