Lauchlin of the Bad Heart (39 page)

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

“A brilliant evocation of life in an enchanting, mysterious part of Canada.”

—
The Ottawa Sun

“MacDonald lays bare a man’s heart as few writers can, with wry tolerance and bare-knuckled understanding, illuminating the twisted roots of ambition and promiscuous love in a way that will change how you see men forever. Prepare to fall head over heels for
Lauchlin of the Bad Heart
—and D. R. MacDonald, too.”

—Merilyn Simonds

“A superb work…It brims with the landscape and weather, texture and colour, character and eccentricity and rhythm and cadence of Cape Breton.”

—
Guelph Mercury

“Compelling in its beauty. Set against a landscape that is depicted with exquisite care, it crackles with suspense and will transport the reader to the heights and depths of intimacy.”

—Alistair MacLeod

“Skilfully crafted…It takes only a few paragraphs to be captivated by the comfortable cadence of D. R. MacDonald’s storytelling.”

—
Quill & Quire

“Exceptionally crafted and imagined, nearly perfect in execution,
Lauchlin of the Bad Heart
confirms D. R. MacDonald’s vast, generous talent…His sensibility is as timeless as the tragedies—of love and regret, the human heart in perpetual crisis—he unfolds with such elegant reserve.”

—Charles Foran

Lauchlin of the Bad Heart

© 2007 by D. R. MacDonald.

P.S. section © 2008 by D. R. MacDonald.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40307-8

A Phyllis Bruce Book, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Originally published in hardcover by Phyllis Bruce Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd: 2007

This Harper Perennial edition: 2008

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

HARPER
PERENNIAL
^®
is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers

The characters in this novel are fictional creations. Any resemblance to actual persons is coincidental and unintended.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint excerpts from previously published works:

Anne Wilkinson’s “In June and Gentle Oven,” © Alan Wilkinson. Reprinted by permission.

“Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed” (excerpt), from
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas,
by Dylan Thomas, copyright © 1946 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

MacDonald, D. R.

Lauchlin of the bad heart: a novel / D. R. MacDonald.

“A Phyllis Bruce book”.

1. Title.

PS
8575.
D
6295
L
38 2008
C
813’.54
C
2008-901826-5

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