“One of the best—and most wonderfully experimental—historical fiction titles of the year. . . . Truly spectacular.” —Toronto Star

What is an ordinary life worth?

A seasoned writer stumbles across an obituary and imagination is sparked. The brief words of memoriam describe a woman who was both extraordinary—eccentric, revered in her field, a renowned expert—but also utterly ordinary. How does a writer, intrigued by all that isn’t said, create a story, or capture an unknowable woman and all the secret passions, choices and compromises that make up a life?

In Machine Without Horses, Helen Humphreys explores the real life and the imagined internal life of the famous and famously private salmon-fly dresser Megan Boyd, a craftswoman who worked for sixty years out of a bare-bones cottage in a small village in the north of Scotland. Humphreys, both present in the story and its architect, reveals with her inimitable style the complicated emotional landscape that can exist under even the most constant surface.

HELEN HUMPHREYS’ last novel, The Reinvention Of Love, was a national bestseller. Coventry was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Trillium Book Award. Humphreys won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize for Afterimage and the Toronto Book Award for Leaving Earth. Her much-loved novel The Lost Garden was a Canada Reads selection. The recipient of the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence, Humphreys lives in Kingston, Ontario.

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“One of the best — and most wonderfully experimental — historical fiction titles of the year … Humphreys is an extraordinary writer. Truly spectacular.” — Toronto Star

“[Humphreys’] impressive ability to tell a story through the ordinary actions of her characters makes reading Machine Without Horses an effortless pleasure.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“In this ingenious mix of fiction and fact, Humphreys...meditates on the art of writing, how to bring a character to life as well as what matters and what doesn’t. Typical of Humphreys, the book is magical and mesmerizing and surprisingly, given the subject, deeply emotionally satisfying.” — NOW Magazine

“Humphreys is one of this country’s most beautiful writers, and her books are often sparked by a single moment. This newest, for example, stems from an obituary, from which she creates a life story.” — Toronto Star

“A beautifully told story from start to finish and one of the most surprising books of the year.” — Divine.ca

“A life story in two moving parts, this gem of a novel is as unique as the woman who inspired it … Spinning a compelling tale that blends fact and fiction, [Humphreys] delivers a transcendent life-honouring work.” — Postmedia

“Humphreys is a consummate storyteller. . . . [She] is always meditating upon fiction as an art form and its ability to replicate life. Humphreys is not only a writer—she is a writer/critic in the tradition of the poet/critic, T.S. Eliot.” — Literary Review of Canada