Snake City

Snake City takes the reader into an imaginary kingdom in the waterways of Florida, inhabited by macho gator-killers and feral pigs with murderous tusks for goring two-legged predators. At the centre of this hallucinatory fable are Cottonmouth, a viper with a penchant for salty language, and his long-suffering roommate Freddie, a retired Canadian Snowbird who has stupidly purchased swamp acreage from a disreputable land developer to build his dream cabin. When both Freddie and Cottonmouth fall in love with Hilda, a shape-shifting swamp woman, a nasty ménage à trois develops. Into the grittier picture enters a religious zealot, nicknamed “Yessie” by the locals, and his stalker Handsome Harry, a ruthless alphagator who wants to make a fast-food snack of him. Welcome to Snake City, a devouring adventure in pure evil, blood-curdling terror, and exotic dining.

Joe Rosenblatt was born in Toronto in 1933. Over the years, he has written more than 20 books of poetry, has appeared in over 30 anthologies of Canadian poetry, and has been translated into French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish. He is a winner of the Governor General’s award and the B.C. Book Prize for poetry. Since 1980 he has lived in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island with his wife Faye and their generational cats.