Kirjahaku

An evocative post-apocalyptic vision of loss, love and redemption ...Last man on earth-I'm beginning to fantasize that. The last human survivor Seems very unlikely, in a world inhabited by so many millions of people in so many cities, so many countries. But in this silence-who knows? Actually, I think it's the silence, and my deepening sense of isolation, that are encouraging me to think I may be alone, completely alone. -But how will I find out for sure, now that radio and TV and newspapers and the Internet and of course social media have all gone? So, don't even think about it If I am the last, there's nobody out there to care Keep active, exercise-think and write. No returned books to re-shelve now-or very few, the final few. However, I always did find pleasure and some company, or illusion of company, in books-and in my own writing, those unpublished poems and short stories piled up in my closet at home So now here I am taking refuge again in the comfort of words? Beloved words Of course nobody will read the ones I write now, almost certainly they won't. So who am I writing them for? Myself, I guess. My other self. The urge to communicate remains, remains to the end?-even if only with oneself.So begins Librarian, a compelling short novel of survival and the search for meaning. Compelling characters and thought-provoking meditations on the meaning of philosophy and literature in a world gone wrong make Librarian a book you won't put down-and won't soon forget."To live through a devastating event, to become isolated from one's fellow humans and to face a crisis of diminishing resources is the all-to-real nightmare of our time. When, in Librarian by Peter Abbot, this happens to Peter, a university librarian in a mid-size town in Canada, he is challenged to discover and develop his own ability to survive, to search for signs of human life, and to preserve the cultural heritage for whomever else might have survived this mysterious armageddon. Librarian is a story of both inner and outer resources as the physical struggle to survive becomes a search for human warmth and meaning." -- John Passfield, author of Pompeii

An evocative post-apocalyptic vision of loss, love and redemption ...Last man on earth--I'm beginning to fantasize that. The last human survivor Seems very unlikely, in a world inhabited by so many millions of people in so many cities, so many countries. But in this silence--who knows? Actually, I think it's the silence, and my deepening sense of isolation, that are encouraging me to think I may be alone, completely alone. --But how will I find out for sure, now that radio and TV and newspapers and the Internet and of course social media have all gone? So, don't even think about it If I am the last, there's nobody out there to care Keep active, exercise--think and write. No returned books to re-shelve now--or very few, the final few. However, I always did find pleasure and some company, or illusion of company, in books--and in my own writing, those unpublished poems and short stories piled up in my closet at home So now here I am taking refuge again in the comfort of words? Beloved words Of course nobody will read the ones I write now, almost certainly they won't. So who am I writing them for? Myself, I guess. My other self. The urge to communicate remains, remains to the end?--even if only with oneself.So begins Librarian, a compelling short novel of survival and the search for meaning. Compelling characters and thought-provoking meditations on the meaning of philosophy and literature in a world gone wrong make Librarian a book you won't put down--and won't soon forget."To live through a devastating event, to become isolated from one's fellow humans and to face a crisis of diminishing resources is the all-to-real nightmare of our time. When, in Librarian by Peter Abbot, this happens to Peter, a university librarian in a mid-size town in Canada, he is challenged to discover and develop his own ability to survive, to search for signs of human life, and to preserve the cultural heritage for whomever else might have survived this mysterious armageddon. Librarian is a story of both inner and outer resources as the physical struggle to survive becomes a search for human warmth and meaning." -- John Passfield, author of Pompeii

Peter Abbot, author of Voice of the Lord and Librarian, probes the meaning of childhood, crime, loss and redemption in this new novel, set in the city of Hamilton, Ontario.

Two brutal slayings--dubbed the "Millennial Murders" by the media--have shocked residents of Steeltown. But that's only the beginning ...In this new novel, Peter Abbot, author of Librarian and Voice of the Lord and himself a long-time resident of Canada's tenth largest city, explores the meaning of hope, despair, and redemption--and introduces readers to a number of Hamiltonians they won't soon forget.

Zimbabwe, 1983.Three young people -- one from Australia, one from Canada, and one from Britain -- visit the country once known as Rhodesia. But the ghosts of the country's troubled past have not yet been laid to rest, as Paul, Susanna and Stephen will soon discover.Gukurahundi: Voice of the Lord is a compelling exploration of the heart of darkness within us all, as well as of the enduring power of poetry to explain and heal.

A novel of the COVID-19 pandemic ...The onslaught of the coronavirus leads to the cancellation of a renowned quartet's planned performance of Schubert's Quintet in C. But the group continues to practice, in hopes of at least an eventual private performance, and in an effort to draw the musicians closer together and improve their music-making, Boris -- the group's founder and cellist -- asks each of them to keep and share diary entries, from which he'll choose a daily entry as a record of the journey they are making together, and yet apart.The result is a poignant chronicle of a world-altering event as reflected in miniature in everyday life, written with grace and empathy.

The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic leads to the cancellation of a renowned quartet's planned performance of Schubert's Quintet in C. But the group continues to practice, in hopes of at least an eventual private performance, and in an effort to draw the musicians closer together and improve their music-making, Boris -- the group's founder and cellist -- asks each of them to keep and share diary entries, from which he'll choose a daily entry as a record of the journey they are making together, and yet apart.So begins Plague Year, the latest novel by Hamilton writer Peter Abbot. Written as a series of diary entries and emails, Plague Year affords an intimate glimpse into the impact of a global pandemic at a personal level. The result is a poignant chronicle of a world-altering event as reflected in miniature in everyday life, written with grace and empathy.A sample from Chapter One ...Friday 3rd April 2020 / JENNYI'm surprised that the newspaper is still being delivered. I must try to thank the newsboy - if I talk to him from this side of the front-door, surely I would be far enough away, but maybe I shouldn't give him a tip - they say that type of physical contact could transmit the virus or whatever it is - but at least I could say Thank You at arm's length, surely? I wonder when he delivers the newspaper? Probably too early for me to get to the front-door, maybe I should pin a thank-you note to the screen-door? But if he stops delivery, I wouldn't really miss it - the CBC News on the radio is enough, more than enough, these days, I think In fact, there's a lot of things that clutter one's life which, I confess, I wouldn't really miss.But what a shock when I did read the newspaper - I saw the main headline, "We're in a race against time", so then I read, in the end, almost everything there - and as I say, what a shock to see how the whole COVID-19 situation, here in Hamilton, is much much more serious than I knew. That disturbed me all day on and off - I could hardly concentrate on what I was reading - and then on TV in the evening, the news under the screen had this: "80K COVID-19 CASES IN ONT. BY APRIL 30" - and in the American news in the CBC newscast, "Trump orders US Company to stop exporting masks to Canada" - just when it seems wearing a mask - I haven't got one - is likely to become mandatory even in the supermarket. As I say, all a shock to me, and no doubt to many Canadians.And it's a real pity about the Schubert Quintet, I was really looking forward to that - the rehearsals and the three performances - they're such a good Quartet, one of the best, otherwise they wouldn't be in such demand to go on tours in Europe as well as Canada. I was lucky to be invited because they needed an extra cello for the Schubert - which I love It was Anna who arranged the invitation, I think - she has played Second Violin in the Quartet for quite a few years, and I know that Boris, who started it after he came to Canada with his parents, all those years ago - they were refugees, I think - has said how much he admires her playing, he told me that - I had a sort of interview with him, he's an old man and he did make some strange comments, I thought - Anna said he had been a refugee from I think she said Hungary and came to Canada as a boy or young man, with his parents who had been members of a major orchestra. He has a strong accent But I had no problem understanding him. He's tough, I think, and of course he has very high standards. I played movements from Bach, the third cello suite, which I have always loved, and he grunted and said I'd "do".

Peter Abbot's new collection of short stories explores the manifold meanings and nuances of human sexuality in the contemporary world. Whether sombre, angry, lighthearted, or fanciful, these stories lay bare the desires and fears of the human heart in poignant detail. Abbot draws on some of the themes and topics explored in his previous works Duty, Armistice, and Librarian---the historical memory of the First World War, the weight of duty, the uncertainty of identity---and in the process crafts a collection of tales moving and at times discomfiting.

Recently hired as the assistant librarian at Masterson College, Eric Merton is thrown into a bewildering maelstrom of murder and mayhem. It begins with the brutal slaying of the head librarian's administrative assistant. Meanwhile controversy arises about an embargoed journal that may hold a crucial medical secret. As the bodies pile up, will Eric be able to figure out the killer's identity before he, too, becomes yet another victim?Masterson Murders draws on author Peter Abbot's long experience in academic life to draw a compelling portrait of a university library under siege. It's a whodunit unlike any other, with surprises right to the very last line.

In this moving novella, Peter Abbot has penned a moving meditation on what it means to live --- and to die. In short order, Derrick deals with the passing of his Auth Martha, home from South Africa to die; the loss of his best friend "Pip"; the implications of hundreds of children's graves newly found at former residential school sites; and the grisly end of his long-lost uncle, gunned down on the sidewalk outside Derrick's house.What does it all mean? Does it mean anything at all? Exeunt, like all of Abbot's works, looks unflinchingly at the dark corners of the human condition, yet finds hope in the hidden strengths of the human heart.