The Refugee, Book Four of The Blessed, A Novel of Montreal

A boy works on his family’s farm, plays in the fields with his army of siblings, and, like most children, thinks little of the future beyond bedtime. In Ireland in the mid-19th century, the boy’s day to day soon becomes an act of survival. The romantic poetry of Émile Nelligan, the blarney of politician Darcy McGee, the bonhomie of tavern-keeper Joe Beef, a dancing bear, shape-shifters and mystics entwine themselves around the life of a refugee of the Irish Famine, Sean O’Connor. Sean lives a very long life only to carry the weight of grief through an explosive epoch in the life of Montreal; even as the city grows it begins to confront the complex politics of language, identity and culture. Sean, forever broken, plies his vocation of doctor surrounded by families familiar to readers of the previous volumes of The Blessed: the Côtés, the Beechams, the Gabriels who all live their own colourful lives in this, the penultimate book of the series.