Baltimore’s Mansion: A Memoir

In this loving memoir Wayne Johnston returns to Newfoundland-the people, the place, the politics-and illuminates his family's story with all the power and drama he brought to his magnificent novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams.

Descendents of the Irish who settled in Ferryland, Lord Baltimore's Catholic colony in Newfoundland, the Johnstons "went from being sea-fearing farmers to sea-faring fishermen." Each generation resolves to escape the hardships of life at sea, but their connection to this fantastically beautiful but harsh land is as eternal as the rugged shoreline, and the separations that result between generations may be as inevitable as the winters they endure. Unfulfilled dreams haunt this family history and make Baltimore's Mansion a thrilling and captivating book.

Wayne Johnston’s latest novel (his fifth), The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, has been published in Canada, the US and the UK to tremendous critical acclaim, and is forthcoming in Germany and Holland. The film version of a previous novel, The Divine Ryans, will be released this fall. Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Newfoundland and now lives in Toronto.