"Between the voids at the deepest and farthest reaches of our science, there is this eternal now..."

In this second suite of intimate essays, Lloyd Ratzlaff summons the secret hiding spots, makeshift rafts, and uncomplicated childhood joys that lay the foundations for adult philosophy. In tune with the vivid simplicities of the sensuous world and the honour of unassuming people, Ratzlaff explores the disguises shaped by religion, family, and memory as he recreates the discovery and illumination that his past has offered.

Whether you sit back and savour the ribald yarns of Sandra Dee or pick up a bit of Christian dating advice circa 1950s, remember, the tombstones are talking, and the child's cookie box found in the river may contain miracle or misery-but you won't know until you open it.

Lloyd Ratzlaff brings the prairie landscape to life through a capacious imagination charged with wonder and the gentle irony of an awareness tempered by time and love. A remarkable new talent in the burgeoning field of literary non-fiction, Ratzlaff connects with the challenges posed by scepticism and belief, countering both the cynicism and doctrinairism of contemporary life with a renewed praise of the profound depths of the spirit and the natural world. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Ratzlaff currently makes his living as a writer in Saskatoon. He has worked as a freelance writer and columnist, a school counsellor in the Saskatoon Catholic school system, a lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, and as a Minister at several churches in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Both his creative non-fiction and professional pieces have been widely published throughout Canada. He lives in Saskatoon.

Lloyd Ratzlaff's profile page

• Short-listed, Non-fiction Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards
• Short-listed, Saskatoon Book Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards

"Backwater Mystic Blues is an extended aide memoire of . . . everyday objects and gestures, retrieved from memory and made to live again in a phosphorescent prose that 'restores the world to word' as (Ratzlaff) writes and whistles in the dark." - Myrna Kostash

Shortlisted for the Non-Fiction and Saskatoon Book Awards, 2006 Saskatchewan Book Awards

"Backwater Mystic Blues is an extended aide memoire of . . . everyday objects and gestures, retrieved from memory and made to live again in a phosphorescent prose that 'restores the world to word' as he writes . . ." - Myrna Kostash

"The essays sing the blues, touching readers as music does, not through linear development or logical exposition but through scenes that resonate emotionally: past reverberates with present and ordinary stuff is transposed into mystical keys . . . Ratzlaff bends our usual angles of vision and sheds light and colour on religious experiences of one kind or another." - Edna Froese, Journal of Mennonite Studies

"The drag of the mundane and the mixed rapture/terror of the divine both find expression-the mundane made keenly relevant and the divine fully believable and grounded . . . Consider it narrative poetry . . . a series of intimate snapshots . . . and find the soul of a poet and a friend within its pages." - Martin Van Woudenberg, Pacific Rim Review of Books