In this coming-of-age story, Benjie Gabai is convinced he’s been the victim of a terrible cosmic hoax. Instead of being born in the 18th century as a French-Canadian voyageur, God has plunked him down in present-day Montreal, into a family that views his fur trade obsession as proof that their Benjie, once so bursting with promise, has well and truly lost it. Benjie serves out his days as caretaker of The Bay’s poky in-store fur trade museum, dusting and polishing the artifacts that fuel his imagination. When he learns his museum is about to be closed down, scattering his precious collection to the four winds, he hatches a plan that risks bringing his voyageur illusions lapping dangerously up against reality.

My True and Complete Adventures as a Wannabe Voyageur melds Canadian frontier history with the madcap adventures of a young man who is not ready to meet adulthood head on.

Praise for My True and Complete Adventures as a Wannabe Voyageur
"I enjoyed ... the way that Rudin was able to successfully romanticize the Voyageurs and make them mythical beings."
~ From the Dusty Bookshelf
"Calling all Canadian fiction lovers, if you’re looking for a light-hearted and very endearing book full of Canadiana and absurd storylines, then this book will tickle your fancy."
~ Worn Pages and Ink blog

Phyllis Rudin's writing has been published in numerous periodicals including The Massachusetts Review, AGNI, PRISM international, and Prairie Fire. Her short story "Candlepower," which appeared in This Magazine, won its Great Canadian Literary Hunt in 2010. Her first novel, Evie, the Baby and the Wife, a fictionalized account of the Vancouver to Ottawa Abortion Caravan, was published by Inanna Publications in 2014, followed by My True and Complete Adventures as a Wannabe Voyageur, which came out with NeWest Press in 2017. Phyllis Rudin has lived in the US and France, and now makes her home in Montreal where she is engaged in a project to walk every street in the city. Her latest novel, Tucked Away, is coming out in 2022.

Phyllis Rudin's profile page

• Winner, Best Cover Design at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards