Award-winning author David Doucette situates his new novel in the hardscrabble life of an isolated coastal community in Depression-era Cape Breton. Doucette is a gifted storyteller with a knack for reflecting character and landscape – at once beautiful and bestial, sustaining and sinister.
North of Smokey is the gripping story of Frank Curtis, the youngest of four children growing up in a small wood frame house typical of the small settlements that dot the Cape Breton coastline between mountain and ocean – typical of people scratching a living from both. As the youngest, Frank has to try the hardest, learn the quickest, be the more determined. When a hunting accident almost takes his young life, Frank Curtis displays inner and outer strengths to which many aspire.

David Doucette was born in northeastern Cape Breton Island. He has travelled the world, writes, builds houses, and plays several musical instruments. He has published two novels in Canada both of which were finalists for the Dartmouth Book Award, one winning the award in 2002. A Hard Old Love Amongst Scavengers will be his third published novel. He now divides his time between Canada and Brazil.

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