Farrow • Callaghan • White ~ December 9, 2023

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2023 ~ Our special Exile/Christmas literary evening, at the Hothouse Restaurant (Front & Church, Toronto). The evening is RSVP seating.

$99 per person: A three-course fine-dining experience with engaging writers, lively conversations, memorable readings, and musical performances for you to enjoy!

And each guest will receive a Christmas gift from Exile: the four books, worth over $160!

Limited to 40 people. Please arrive between 5:15 and 6:00

Email admin@exileeditions.com for reservations or information.

The evening’s schedule/times, and menu, are below.

For your enjoyment: Each author will read from their newly released book, and Karen Lee White will sing and play guitar (her original Indigenous music) to start and end the evening. You will be served a splendid 3-course dinner that is interspersed with readings.

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And, if you are unfamiliar with John Farrow – see this excellent review that appeared a week ago in The Winnipeg Free Press (see bottom half of the Info Page): Free Press review

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The Evening’s Dining Pleasure:

TO START
Caprese Salad
Ontario tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, balsamic reduction, roasted garlic, basil pesto
or
Caesar Salad
Romaine, herbed focaccia garlic croutons, shaved Parmesan Caesar dressing.
MAIN
Roasted Pork Loin
with pear chutney, sweet potato mash, Calvados demi jus
or
Oven Roasted Salmon
with herb roasted mini red potatoes, seasonal veg, and Beurre Blanc sauce
or
Roasted Chicken Supreme
with roasted garlic chive mash, seasonal veg and mushroom chicken demi
or
Christmas Colour Tortellini
stuffed with ricotta, and spinach. Tossed in marinara sauce and finished with basil pesto & roasted tomatoes
DESSERT
Sticky Toffee Pudding and coffee/tea
Classic warm English Holiday dessert served with whipped cream

Wine/Spirits/Beer/Beverages are NOT included in the $99 cost.

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The Evening’s Schedule:

5:15 – 6:00: arrival and seating
5:45 – 6:15: Karen Lee White sings and plays guitar
6:00 – 6:15: servers take your order
*6:15: Barry introduces our evening and the authors
6:20 – 6:30: salads are served
*6:50 – 7:10: John Farrow, with his book
7:15 – 8:00: main course
*8:00 – 8:20 Barry Callaghan, with his books
8:25 – 8:45: Desert
*8:45:  Karen Lee White with her book, followed by song and guitar

Email admin@exileeditions.com for reservations or information.

And be sure to stop at our books table. For those attending as a couple, you may choose/switch for a different book by one of the authors. We will also have unrelated titles on display, and a subscription offer for our EXILE Quarterly – all of which will make for great Christmas gifts! Cash or e-transfer only.

For those who cannot attend the event, but would like to purchase the books being launched, they are all discounted 20% and S&H is included – just click on a book’s title for the purchase link. Delivery by Canada Post – usually arrives within 5 to 10 days (depends on location in Canada).

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THE BOOKS and AUTHORS:

John Farrow’s A Patient Death: In the riveting 10th novel that features his iconic detective Émile Cinq-Mars, the investigation into a peculiar rash of deaths in which the elderly, sitting up straight, suddenly “pop off” has retired Montreal Police Service’s Cinq-Mars tapped by a U.S. state trooper to look into the deaths being booked as “natural causes” which ultimately lays bare the roots and intricacies of the opioid crisis.

John Farrow is Trevor Ferguson’s crime fiction nom de plume. Under the two names, he is the author of 17 novels. He’s had four plays produced, including in New York – the French version of Long, Long, Short, Long was seen by more than 22,000 patrons, remarkable for a play in Canada and for an English writer in Quebec. The film of his novel, The Timekeeper, was released in 2009. His crime novels have received extraordinary acclaim around the world. City of Ice, which introduced his iconic detective, Sergeant-Detective Émile Cinq-Mars, was a bestseller in lands as diverse as Singapore, France, the Netherlands, and South Africa, and was published in 17 countries. He currently resides in Victoria, British Columbia. www.johnfarrowmysteries.com

Enjoy the book with a 20% discount: A Patient Death (S&H included)

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Barry Callaghan’s When Things Get Worst: Sensual and perfectly pitched in its depiction of thought in a language that is specific to the rhythms of southwestern Ontario, When Things Get Worst is a moving, lyrical testimony to the force of the human spirit. It is the evocative tale of those who, having lost everything else, retain their dignity in a declining, often dissolute world.

Barry Callaghan’s Never’s Just the Echo of Forever: In experiencing this gorgeously wrought, profoundly tender piece of work, one quickly realizes it is among the most perfectly accomplished and haunting works of Canadian fiction. The main character is known by Callaghan so deeply, with such vast compassion, that he ought to go on forever. So it happens with the transformative power of this book.

Barry Callaghan, of Toronto, is the well-known novelist, poet, and person of letters who has been included in every major Canadian anthology, and his fiction and poetry have been translated into seven languages. His works include All the Lonely People and Raise You on the River (2018, Exile Editions), The Black Queen Stories, The Way the Angel Spreads Her Wings, A Kiss Is Still a Kiss, Barrelhouse Kings, Between Trains, Beside Still Waters, among others. He lives in Toronto.

Enjoy the book with a 20% discount: When Things Get Worst (S&H included)

Enjoy the book with a 20% discount: Never’s Just the Echo of Forever (S&H included)

Barry Callaghan also has two 2018 releases with Exile Editions:

All the Lonely People (the definitive collection of his short fiction – 5.5 x 8 HC, 504 pages): From the Preface by Margaret Atwood: Callaghan’s writing is wide-ranging but often takes the perspective of a marginal individual’s view of the human experience. These tales are told in a variety of voices – street hustlers, priests, blues singers, Holocaust survivors, cross-dressers, paramilitary snipers, even those we may euphemistically consider the “ordinary” – all of them authentic, and all would subscribe to the maxim that “happiness is overrated.” The dialogue is true to speech as it is spoken, shot through with humour, piercing sadness and puzzling beauty. Yes, I would like to buy All the Lonely People. (S&H included)

Raise You On the River, (the definitive collection of his nonfiction/essays – 6 x 9 HC, 472 pages): the third in his series of literary essays that presents some six decades of Barry Callaghan being a singular presence in Canada. His distinctive literary style, tone and temperament reveal him to be an inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman celebrated for his sharp intellect and startling imagination. Always attuned to the history of the place and in covert search of adventure, he is also a public scholar, unflinching before the harsh complexities of our time. Yes, I would like to buy Raise You On the River. (S&H included)

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Bonewalker is Karen Lee White’s second novel: Krie Redsky is an extraordinary Indigenous child who has both a curse and blessing that allows him to walk between this world and the Spirit Realm. He is also at an age where he is learning to cope with the twists and turns of friendships, the awkwardness of first love, and the self-doubt that must be overcome following loss and betrayal. But, nurtured by Knowledge Keepers as “one who is without fear, and with the ability to cross realities,” he is soon recognized as an individual who can – and will – battle the terrifying ancient spirit stealers known as Bonewalkers. But is he strong enough for what is to come?

Karen Lee White is Salish, Tuscarora, Chippewa, and Scots who lives in the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən and Xwsepsum People (Vancouver Island, British Columbia). Karen was adopted by the Dak`laweidí Wolf Clan of the Interior Tlingit-Tagish people on whose land her second novel Bonewalker unfolds. The Silence, her first novel – which includes a CD of the author’s original music – was released in 2018, and went into a second printing after just six weeks. She resides in Victoria, British Columbia.

Enjoy the book with a 20% discount: Bonewalker

Enjoy Karen’s debut novel: The Silence (S&H included)

Email admin@exileeditions.com for reservations or information about the evening.