Kirjahaku

Fifteen-year-old Rigg, son of Leif Eriksson, loves mystery and adventure. In the early eleventh century, he finds both of these in abundance when his father sails away and leaves him behind in Vinland, the Vikings' precarious foothold on the wild Newfoundland coast. Soon, rigg makes an amazing discovery. The Vikings aren't alone in this alien land. But who inhabits it with them? Demons, giants, or another human tribe -- one that equals the Norse invaders in skill and bravery?

Natural Space In Literature: Imagination and Environment in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Fiction and Poetry

Tom Henighan’s numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry include The Maclean’s Companion to Canadian Arts and Culture, The Well of Time, and the YA novel Viking Quest (2001). He lives in Ottawa, and teaches at Carleton University.

The Fire Lessons, Tom Henighan's third book of poetry, is a work of art that can be enjoyed on many levels. Echoes of ballads, nursery rhymes, the one-breath note of haiku, the jagged, startling challenge of contemporary verse, carry the reader into new perspectives of contemporary angst and joy. These poems, a distillation of a life's experiences, thoughts, and profound engagements with the arts, take the chaos of everyday life and reveal to us the mystery and the music that lie beneath.

Love and loneliness, the quest for family happiness and sexual fulfillment, odd encounters and comical miscalculations-these stories move between city and country and display a wide range of men, women and children in search of joy, pleasure, and a success in life that often seems just out of reach. Less People in love (Blue Menus, Prime Time), cheating spouses (Storm Warnings, Intruders, Blue Menus), people near the breaking point ( Intruders, Famine, Blue Menus, Visiting Mother), women looking for peace of mind, or God, or finding miracles in daily life (Visiting Mother, Confirmation, The Well), baffled country folk (Famine, The House, The Acrobats), kids caught up in comic or sad predicaments (Enemies of Culture, The Acrobats), people close to violence, or over the edge (At Approximately Three PM, Hotel Paradise, Famine) . . . These dramatic stories catch moments of real life in familiar settings of city or country. The writer reaches out with sympathy and insight, depicting men, women, and children, both simple and complex, who, like all of us, are searching for happiness in a daunting world. As one reviewer noted: "Tom Henighan . . . seems to take his inspiration from all points of the imaginative compass. Henighan's use of the short story form . . . shows great versatility and] the thematic concerns of these stories are also wide-ranging." The author has published some twenty books in print form, including short fiction, with publishers in the U.S., Canada, and Britain.

When Hawk’s baseball coach tells him how Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run nearby, the question arises: what happened to the baseball? Bullies, baseball, and kids who defy the odds. Hawk, a poor, half-Native boy who lives on the street, is eager to go back to school, to play baseball, and to please both his divorced parents. When Mr. Rizzuto, his baseball coach, tells him how the great Babe Ruth, playing on nearby Toronto Island in 1914, hit his first professional home run, the question arises: what happened to the baseball? Did it land in the waters of Lake Ontario and disintegrate over time? Or did someone fish it out?This is the story of a quest for a lost baseball treasure, and of a boy finding his own family roots and a place in the big city. A lively tale, it shows how kids who seem powerless can work together to take on some of life’s daunting challenges as they deal with schoolroom bullies and street gangs.

Tom Blake is a likeable but shy high school student, who fantasizes about adventure, romance, and discovering "portholes" to the past. Little does he know that all are about to come his way. Tom discovers that a local computer company is conditioning his fellow students for what he suspects is some evil purpose. He soon finds himself up against a corrupt organization with an agenda of genetic experimentation. Mercury Man evokes all the excitement of the best scifi, fantasy, and hero myths while never losing touch with ordinary urban contemporary reality.

The year is 2099. North America is in chaos, ruined by years of war, terrorism, and ecological destruction. Marauding motorcycle gangs roam the land, while a secret society of mutants who practise devilish rites terrorize the innocent. Young Toby Johnson lives with his father, one of the Old Believers, a religious sect that clings to stern moral values. Although embarrassed by his father's quaint ways, Toby is horrified when a motorcycle gang attacks their modest homestead. To help the old man, the boy must travel with his dog across the dangerous countryside, a journey on which he is joined by a mysterious black man named Jim White, who seems to be in touch with higher powers and may himself be angel or demon. In the end Toby earns a saving gift for his father and meets Sarah clever, beautiful, and haunted by a demonic past who will change his life forever. A retelling of the biblical Book of Tobit, Demon in My View is a powerful breakthrough novel.

Born in Manitoba of Icelandic parents, Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962) became one of Canada's most famous and controversial Arctic explorers. After graduate studies in anthropology at Harvard University, Stefansson lived with and studied Inuit in the Mackenzie River Delta in the Northwest Territories in the winter of 1906-07. In two subsequent expeditions he completed a major anthropological survey of the Central and Western Arctic coasts and islands of North America; located and lived with the Copper Inuit, a previously unknown group of aboriginal people; and discovered the world's last major land masses. During his third and final great Arctic expedition from 1913 to 1918, some of Stefansson's men perished tragically, an outcome that severely damaged his reputation. Nevertheless, the hardy explorer contributed immensely to knowledge about the Far North, particularly in his championing of the "Friendly Arctic." Part scientist, part showman, Vilhjalmur Stefansson was truly unique among polar adventurers.

Deadly nightshade -- the poison plant par excellenc-- and in historic Quebec City at an important scientific conference concerning the genetic manipulation of trees it means murder! Police, RCMP, and a mysterious FBI agent from Washington converge on the scene. But the sharpest eye belongs to Sam Montcalm, a despised "bedroom snooper" from Ottawa whose primary concern is to clear a First Nations activist of the crime. Sam is middle-aged, tough, and sophisticated, yet he's also a lone wolf who feels displaced nearly everywhere, and his relations with his colleagues, the police -- and with women -- are always complicated. "You're a psychic wound without a health card," a friend comments. The story moves to its surprising climax as Montcalm follows the trail of murder back to Canada's capital and into the Gatineau Hills, his deep sense of cynicism about human nature confirmed as he closes in on the killer and struggles to come to terms with himself.