{"product_id":"the-colony-of-unrequited-dreams-by-wayne-johnston","title":"The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The Colony of Unrequited Dreams\" is Newfoundland--that vast, haunting near-continent upon which the two lovers and adversaries of this miraculously inventive novel pursue their ambitions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoey Smallwood, sprung from almost Dickensian privation, is a scholarship boy at a private school, where his ready wit bests the formidably tart-tongued Sheilagh Fielding. Their dual fates become forever linked by an anonymous letter to a local paper critical of the school--a letter whose mysterious authorship will weigh heavily on their lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDriven by socialist dreams and political desire, Smallwood will walk a railroad line the breadth of Newfoundland in a journey of astonishing power and beauty, to unionize the workers--and make his name. Fielding, now a popular newspaper columnist, provides--in her journalism, her diaries, and her bleakly hilarious \"Condensed History of Newfoundland\"--a satirical and eloquent counternarrative to Smallwood's story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the decades pass and Smallwood's rise converges with Newfoundland's emerging autonomy, these two vexed characters must confront their own frailties and secrets--and their mutual (if doomed) love.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Colony of Unrequited Dreams combines erudition, unflagging narrative brio, and emotional depth in a manner reminiscent of the best of Robertson Davies and John Irving. Set in a landscape already made familiar to American readers by Annie Proulx and Howard Norman, it establishes Wayne Johnston as a novelist who is as profound as he is funny, with an unerringly ironic sense of the intersection where private lives and history collide.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel HeARTs","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52981788311833,"sku":"9780385495424","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0873\/6283\/0617\/files\/9780385495424.jpg?v=1786569520","url":"https:\/\/novelhearts.com\/products\/the-colony-of-unrequited-dreams-by-wayne-johnston","provider":"Novel HeARTs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}