NOTHING THE SAME, EVERYTHING HAUNTED

A middle-aged Jewish man who fantasizes about being a cowboy goes on an eccentric quest across Europe after the 1941 Nazi invasion of Lithuania in this wild and witty, yet heartrending novel from the bestselling author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted Yiddish for Pirates.

Motl is middle-aged, poor, nerdy, Jewish, and in desperate need of a shave. Since having his balls shot cleanly off as a youth in WWI, he's lived a quiet life at home in Vilnius with his shrewd and shrewish mom, Gitl, losing himself in the masculine fantasy world of cowboy novels by writers like Karl May - novels equally loved by Hitler, whose troops have just invaded Lithuania and are out to exterminate people like Motl. In his dreams, Motl is a fast-talking, rugged, expert gunslinger capable of dealing with the Nazi threat. But only in his dreams.

As friends and neighbours are killed around them, Motl and Gitl escape from Vilnius, saving their own skins. But they immediately risk everything to try to rescue relatives they hope are still alive. With death all around him, Motl decides that a Jew's best revenge is not only to live, but to procreate. In order to achieve this, though, he must relocate those most crucial pieces of his anatomy lost to him in a glacier in the Swiss Alps in the previous war. It's an absurd yet life-affirming mission, made even more urgent after he's separated from his mother and is no longer sure whether she's alive or dead. Joining forces, and eventually hearts, with Esther, a Jewish woman whose family has been killed, Motl ventures across Europe: what follows is a kaleidoscope of narrow escapes and close encounters with everyone from Himmler to circus performers, double agents, quislings, fake "Indians" and real ones. Until, at last, Motl figures out that he has more connection to the Indigenous characters in western novels than the cowboys he has idolized.

An imaginative and deeply felt exploration of genocide, persecution, colonialism and masculinity - saturated with Gary Barwin's sharp wit and perfect pun-play - NOTHING THE SAME, EVERYTHING HAUNTED: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy is a one-of-a-kind novel of sheer genius.

Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist and the author of twenty-one books of poetry, fiction and books for children. His latest book is the poetry collection No TV for Woodpeckers (Wolsak & Wynn). His recent national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates (Random House Canada) won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour as well as the Canadian Jewish Literary Award (FIction) and the Hamilton Literary Award (Fiction). It was also a finalist for both the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.