THE UMBRELLA MENDER

A haunting debut – in the same lyrical vein as the writings of Kathleen Winter and Joseph Boyden, this is destined to become a classic novel or the North.

In 1951, tuberculosis (TB) is decimating the First Nations' Cree population in northern Canada. With no natural immunity, people are dying by the thousands. As many as 7 in 10 are sick. Hazel MacPherson is one of a handful of nurses and doctors trained to combat the deadly disease. Armed with a new drug – streptomycin – and rudimentary x-ray technology, she and a group of medical professionals travel into Native territory to catalogue and treat those ravaged by disease. Removed - often forcibly - from their communities and put into makeshift treatment centres, the patients and the medical staff find themselves entirely out of their respective elements. In the north Hazel finds a world finely balanced between pragmatism and spirituality. But it is the strange and hypnotic presence of Gideon White, the vagrant "umbrella man" from America, that will eventually unseat Hazel's grip on reality. With his charm and his uneasy mind, he will force Hazel to look inward and to make the hardest choice of her life: to be of this world, or in it. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christine Fischer Guy was nominated for the Journey Prize for her short story "How my mother looked" and her fiction has appeared in Descant, Prairie Fire, and Grimm, among others. She has an MA and has studied creative writing at Humber College for Writers. She regularly reviews fiction for Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, and has conducted podcast interviews for Bookninja.com. She has lived and worked in London, England and now makes her home in Toronto.