Most Popular Books by Russell Wangersky

This first short fiction collection by a prominent Canadian journalist paints vivid word pictures of the world and these canvasses superimposes people in all their human imperfections. Russell Wangersky''s characters, caught in a variety of human circumstances, make some outstandingly bad decisions. A labourer enjoys new-found popularity among his co-workers after losing several fingers in a work accident. So, in the face of returning invisibility, he makes a desperate decision. An elderly shut-in chooses to believe the lies of her own life and the world view she absorbs from talk radio and finds the scapegoats that both those distortions of reality require. A man on an ill-conceived vacation decides to stay in a hot tub all day and all night, rather than face his disintegrating family. In these stories, some people seem to escape the consequences of their bad decisions, some people wind up being redeemed, and some are left to fates the reader can only imagine. As a backdrop, often a counterpoint, to these very human struggles, Wangersky paints the most exquisite canvasses with his words. Whether it be landscape or seascape of his long-time home in Newfoundland, startling weather, fine woodworking, or the workings of a factory, he presents us with note-perfect descriptions of the often-stunning world in which we imperfect humans live. Wangersky reminds us, even bad decisions can be cause for celebration, of what it means to be human.

From critically acclaimed author Russell Wangersky, comes a dark, psychological thriller about a man named Walt, a grocery store cleaner who collects the shopping lists people leave in the store and discard without thought. In his fifties, abandoned, he says, by his now-missing wife Mary, Walt is pursued by police detectives unsatisfied with the answers he’s given about her disappearance. Almost invisible to the people who pass him every day, the grocery lists he collects, written on everything from cancelled cheques to mortgage statements to office stationary, give him a personal hold over those who both ignore him and unwittingly disclose facets of their lives to him. When a new cold case squad is formed in St. John’s to look into Mary’s disappearance, the detectives begin to realize that Walt may be involved in more than just his wife’s disappearance. Set in modern-day Newfoundland, after reading Walt, you’ll be sure to never let your shopping list fall to the floor ever again.

A new short story from 2012 Scotiabank-Giller Prize finalist Russell Wangersky. In his first published short story since his critically acclaimed collection, Whirl Away, Russell Wangersky returns with a story about a lonely, ill old man, who is living alone in his house. Sick in bed for three days, Arthur Simmons ponders life, living and the sometimes difficult relationships he has with family members. The last of his generation, Simmons is both stubborn and desperate -- a quietly explosive mix. Russell Wangersky is critically acclaimed writer whose most recent short story collection, Whirl Away, was a finalist for the Scotiabank-Giller Prize. He has also won the British Columbia National Award for Non-Fiction (Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself)), the BMO Winterset Award (The Glass Harmonica) and has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers'' Prize (The Hour of Bad Decisions). He is a newspaper editor and columnist based in St. John''s, Newfoundland.

2013 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award — Winner 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize — Shortlisted 2012 BMO Winterset Award — Finalist From critically acclaimed and award-winning writer, Russell Wangersky, comes a new collection of short fiction. Everyone has something they’re good at: one particular personal skill that they use to keep their lives moving forward when their worlds suddenly become difficult or near-impossible. For some, it’s denial; for others, blunt pragmatism. Still others depend on an over-inflated view of self to keep criticism and doubt at bay. In his new short story collection, Whirl Away, Russell Wangersky – author of critically-acclaimed fiction and non-fiction including The Glass Harmonica, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself and The Hour of Bad Decisions – looks at what happens when people’s personal coping skills go awry. These are people who discover their anchor-chain has broken: characters safe in the world of self-deception or even self-delusion, forced to face the fact that their main line of defense has become their greatest weakness. From the caretaker of a prairie amusement park to the lone occupant of a collapsing Newfoundland town, from a travelling sports drink marketer with a pressing need to get off the road to an elevator inspector who finds himself losing his marriage while sensuously burying himself in the tastes and smells of the kitchen, these are people who spin wildly out of control, finding themselves in a new and different world.

Winner of the 2009 British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, short-listed for the 2008 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize Thousands of boys dream of becoming firefighters. Some get the chance, and for some of those, the dream becomes a nightmare.Burning Down the House is the story of Wangersky’s eight-year career as a volunteer firefighter, an experience that wound up reaching into every facet of his life and changed the way he saw the world forever. Written in vibrant, luminous prose, the book traces his years from rookie to veteran firefighter and the toll it took on his personal life. Offering a rare glimpse into physical dangers and psychological costs of trying to save strangers’ lives, Wangersky paints a harrowing and sometimes heartbreakingly vivid portrait of the fires, medical calls, and automobile accidents that are the standard fare of the profession. Visceral and affecting, Burning Down the House is an insightful insider’s account of the perilous world of firefighting and an unforgettable memoir of how, in finding his passion, Wangersky lost himself.

A humorous and vivid collection of stories about the struggle for human connection by two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize nominee Russell Wangersky. As entertaining as they are insightful, the stories in The Path of Most Resistance are anchored by the concept of passive aggression in our everyday lives: ordinary people who are quietly, desperately, and indirectly trying to impose their will on the uncaring world around them. From a woman who compulsively shops for luggage in order to sublimate her desire for a divorce to a senior citizen who tries to force his family to visit by refusing to eat, the characters in this collection try to change their lives through oblique resistance. The Path of Most Resistance is an observant and compassionate look at the feelings of powerlessness that we all share, and will have readers silently cringing and nodding in recognition of their own bad behaviour.

2010 BMO Winterset Award — Winner When retiree Keith O’Reilly witnesses the murder of his neighbour by a pizza delivery man one night during a snowstorm, a unique series of stories begins to unfold. As the narrative seamlessly moves from neighbour to neighbour, house to house, the reader begins to understand, not only the circumstances that led to the murder, but the private secrets and personal struggles of many of the McKay Street residents. Travelling through the changing viewpoints of a more than a dozen of people in a small residential neighbourhood in St. John’s, Newfoundland, The Glass Harmonica looks at the way common memories and shared experiences bend and warp as individuals recall the events of their lives, and how these distortions influence both the character’s and the reader’s understanding of the truth.

“Read him.” — George Elliott Clarke, author of I & I and George and Rue An award-winning author goes looking for the meaning of family and belonging on a glorious wild-goose-chase road trip across middle America Wangersky’s great-great-grandfather crossed the continent in search of gold in 1849. William Castle Dodge was his name, and he was 22 years old. He wrote a diary of that eventful journey that comes into the author’s hands 160 years later. And typically, quixotically, Wangersky decides to follow Dodge’s westward trail across the great bulging middle of America, not in search of gold but something even less likely: that elusive thing called family. What ensues becomes this story, by turns hilarious and profound, about a very long trip — by car, in Wangersky’s case, and on mule and foot in Dodge’s. Interweaving his experiences on the road with Dodge’s diary, the author contemplates the human need to hunt for roots and meaning as he — and Dodge — encounter immigrants who risk everything to be somewhere else, while only glimpsing those who are there already and who want to hold onto their claim in the stream of human migration. Same Ground is a story about what time washes away and what persists — and what we might find, unexpectedly, if we go looking.

Danny Williams: A Profile examines the seven-year political career of former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams. With photos by renowned photojournalist Paul Daly and evocative text by long-time political columnist Russell Wangersky, the book captures the nature and style of one of the country''s most popular political figures. His career included everything from battles of words with other premiers and with prime ministers to conversations with constituents who felt they could call him "Danny." Consistently carrying the support of more than 70 per cent of his province''s decided voters, Premier Danny Williams retired suddenly in 2010 at the top of his game. Sometimes irascible, and other times self-deprecating and charming, the charismatic Williams left a huge mark, especially for a premier of a small-population province. Occasionally seeming like an ardent Newfoundland and Labrador nationalist, other times professing a great love for the nation of Canada, he battled his way to major successes and left office when he said he felt there were no significant fights left to wage. With photographs that skillfully capture a more personal side of the man than is usually revealed, the book seeks to be a small window on Danny Williams, particularly for people who wonder both what he has done for the province and what he is truly like.

Serez-vous le prochain sur la liste ? Depuis le départ de sa femme, après dix-huit ans d''un mariage calamiteux, Walt, la cinquantaine légèrement bedonnante, vit seul. Pas d''amis, pas de vie sociale. Ce qu''il aime : déambuler la nuit dans les rues de sa ville et, de temps en temps, aller à la pêche dans des coins isolés. Walt est aussi collectionneur, quoique d''un genre particulier : agent d''entretien dans un supermarché, il récolte les listes de courses que les clients jettent dès les caisses passées. C''est devenu un hobby : ramasser ces listes et essayer de se faire une idée de la vie de leurs propriétaires. Ensuite, il aime bien vérifier s''il est tombé juste, jusqu''à s''introduire en douce chez ceux qui ont éveillé sa curiosité... Walt a-t-il seulement une petite manie inquiétante mais inoffensive ? Ou pourrait-il être à l''origine de la disparition de plusieurs femmes de la région ? En mettant en scène un homme de l''ombre qui s''immisce avec une perversité discrète dans le quotidien des gens, Russell Wangersky signe un roman profondément dérangeant. Vos courses n''auront plus la même saveur après cette lecture !