A tribute to nature’s influence on the creative process, Bog Tender is a stunning memoir that explores nature and the act of writing, and where the two intersect. Accomplished fiction author George Szanto lives and writes on a bog that cuts his property in two. Rather than filling in the wetland, he has embraced it as a site of inspiration. Pieced together in 12 chapters—one for each month of the year—this enchanting narrative explores how Szanto’s writing process is affected by the bog’s transformations throughout the seasons. Through each chapter, the author searches for the moments of greatest consequence to him, from his parents’ escape from Hitler’s Vienna to his time spent studying in Germany, and from meeting his future wife and becoming a parent, to his adventures in Mexico.

Set in a place where city is left behind for rural space, Bog Tender is about home and the intricate connections that evolve under and above the water.

A National Magazine Award recipient and winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction, George Szanto is the author of several books of essays and half a dozen novels, including The Tartarus House on Crab. His recent memoir, Bog Tender: Coming Home to Nature and Memory, is a study of the relationship between writing and nature. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, George is also co-author of the Island Investigations International mystery series, which includes Never Sleep with a Suspect on Gabriola Island, Always Kiss the Corpse on Whidbey Island, and Never Hug a Mugger on Quadra Island. Please visit georgeszanto.com.

George Szanto's profile page

Refreshing and satisfying, Bog Tender reveals a writer deep in reflection and quite happy with his lot. —Quill & Quire

A delicate, impressionistic memoir, drawing together strands of the past and ongoing present . . . Beautifully written, deeply felt . . . A celebration of finding one’s place in the world. —Times Colonist

A moving and very thoughtful memoir of George Szanto’s lifelong dance between literature and adventure, wanderlust and home. —Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress

Watching his bogland on Gabriola Island as its life revolves around the circuit of seasons has put George Szanto at the perfect vantage point for reflection and storytelling. He delivers both in generous spades of visualization, language, and drama, whether in recalling fishing trips or eye surgery, dreaming the ideal house or bringing a loved parent back to life through reminiscence, watching in gaped-mouth wonder at the antics of birds or digging deep into family photographs. ‘The sections of a house,’ he writes, ‘should recognize and live with each other, bringing a sense of harmony to those inside.’ Just so do the sections of Bog Tender bring a reader to a sense of recognition of the harmony of one writer’s life of relationships. —Myrna Kostash, author of Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium

Part memoir, part travelogue, part meditation on the natural life of the author’s beloved bog, Bog Tender is a passionately thoughtful book. Szanto writes with wonderful lucidity, never leaving the reader, always circling back to the essence of things. Frog lust and stink cabbage. —Susan Crean, author of the award-winning (Hubert Evans, 2001)The Laughing One: A Journey to Emily Carr

The National Post's story behind the story: George Szanto on Bog Tender

Exquisitely rendered. —Gabriola Sounder

Genuinely heartbreaking . . . Vividly described . . . Szanto is acutely, almost painfully, sensitive to the world outside his front door. —National Post

Lushly rendered. . . . An earthy, homespun and voyeuristically satisfying book. —Kirkus Reviews

Quill & Quire includes Bog Tender on their Spring preview for 2013.

Memory is one of the rare privileges of age. With compassion, wise humour, and a poet’s eye for the telling detail, George Szanto has given us a sort of Pilgrim’s Progress from one man’s intimate story to a dazzling meditation on history and nature. —Alberto Manguel