***2023 IPPY AWARDS: CANADA EAST FICTION – BRONZE MEDAL***

***2022 FOREWORD INDIES BOOK AWARD – FINALIST***

Steinbeck meets Miriam Toews in this insightful and illuminating debut about the decline of rural Canada and the meaning of community.

Welcome to Fearnoch, an undistinguished Ottawa Valley farming hamlet in its twilight. The deterioration of the once fruitful way of life in this small town is explored through the lives and trajectories of its inhabitants. The narration winds into and over the characters to sow differing viewpoints on the death of the family farm, incarcerated youths, falling in love at the town dump, and the coming storm. The novel is a plea for its characters to remember humility, honesty, and to see themselves in their neighbour, before it’s all gone.

Jim McEwen is an award-winning writer born and raised in Dunrobin, ON. A graduate of Memorial University’s Creative Writing Master’s program, he has published work in Riddle Fence and the Telegram. He has been a youth worker, a stonemason labourer, and a tree-planter. Jim is passionate about dinosaurs, hockey, family, and looking for stories.

Jim McEwen's profile page

• Runner-up, IPPY Awards
• Short-listed, Foreword INDIES Book Award

“If you want to understand the real Canada, observes a character in Jim McEwen’s invigorating debut novel, a good place to start is Wing-nite Wednesday in any small town, including the eponymous Fearnoch… In probing Fearnoch’s squalor and his characters’ failures, McEwen has revealed the irresistible greasy heart of those Wing-nite Wednesdays. And in this Canada, love, as sentimental as it sounds, is the hottest sauce of all.”

The Literary Review of Canada

“This is rich, loamy writing, vivid, precise and often funny. Even minor characters are considered with insight and flair.”

The Telegram