The Americans Are Coming

An invasion? For teenagers Dryfly Ramsey and Shadrack Nash, poor and ignorant in the world’s terms but rich in the lore of the magical Miramichi, the annual influx of American anglers, with their money, fishing gear, and thirst for salmon seems like one, and it sets the stage for action. A cast of quirky, unforgettable characters — Nutbeam, a large-nosed, floppy-eared hermit; Shirley, Brennan Siding’s toothless postmistress and Ramsey family matriarch; and Buck, who appears once a year to sire another child — conspire to capture the imagination in Herb Curtis’s now classic novel. And what of the Whooper, that mystical beast whose cries result in amazingly tall tales?

In The Americans Are Coming, the voices of Brennan Siding ring out in the rich vernacular of New Brunswick’s Miramichi region, a world immersed in myth, folklore, and the sulpherous belch of a nearby pulp mill, and where ghosts and demons are as real as the Lone Ranger or the spring run of gaspereaux. With a new afterword by David Adams Richards.

AUTHOR

Herb Curtis

David Richards has written two historical novels for young adults, Soldier Boys (Thistledown Press, 1993) and Lady at Batoche (Thistledown Press, 1999) and The Plough’s Share, a historical novel set in late nineteenth century England and detailing Canada’s Barr Colonist experience. David Richards lives in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Reviews

An invasion? For teenagers Dryfly Ramsey and Shadrack Nash, poor and ignorant in the world’s terms but rich in the lore of the magical Miramichi, the annual influx of American anglers, with their money, fishing gear, and thirst for salmon seems like one. A cast of quirky, unforgettable characters — Nutbeam, a large-nosed, floppy-eared hermit; Shirley, Brennan Siding’s toothless postmistress and Ramsey family matriarch; and Buck, who appears once a year to sire another child — conspire to capture the imagination in Herb Curtis’s now classic novel.

In The Americans Are Coming, the voices of Brennan Siding ring out in the rich vernacular of New Brunswick’s Miramichi region, a world immersed in myth, folklore, and the sulpherous belch of a nearby pulp mill — where ghosts and demons are as real as the Lone Ranger or the spring run of gaspereaux.

“Curtis is a native of the [Miramichi] region, and his finely tuned comedic sense and unerring feel for the realities of life there, particularly during the period of the late ’50s and early ’60s, help him create a very special world.”
– Outdoor Canada

“This novel is no mean book. It is a sprawling labyrinth of characters whose triumphs and losses we cheer and mourn.”