LIKENESS

For avid literary memoir readers filled with personal reflection, such as H is for Hawk, LIKENESS is an ode to life and fatherhood written by a man in the autumn of his life.

In David Macfarlane's living room, there hangs a life-size portrait of himself. The portrait, has become a portal for David: when he stares into his own eyes, and into the painting's background, an aerial view of his childhood house and hometown of Hamilton, he is transported. The painting evokes vivid memories of what was, what is no more and what will never be. It brings David back to his happy, privileged youth - its depiction of his parents' old swimming pool surrounded by dazzlingly bright light reminds him of how his future felt during those days, when the world seemed full of possibilities. His son Blake's future should feel just as bright. As Blake undergoes treatment for an aggressive cancer, his father reckons with his past and the future his son may never have.

David Macfarlane is a Toronto-based writer and editor. He has won numerous National Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award for his journalism. His first book, The Danger Tree, won the Canadian Authors' Association Award for non-fiction. His novel, Summer Gone, was nominated for the Giller Prize. He is also the editor of Toronto: A City Becoming.