“. . . one of Canada’s master storytellers.” — The Miramichi Reader
Redjack, the much hated fish culler, awakens in the bottom of a heaving punt adrift on the Atlantic Ocean. Following the beating he took from his only son, he slinks into the inner bays. Jake, son of Redjack, is home from the failed battle for Suvla Bay in the Great War. With his family, he sails to Trinity Bay to fulfill a promise given to a friend who died in the hell of a Turkish trench. There, unbeknownst to them, they become afflicted with the Spanish flu by the mother of the soldier. On the way home, a fierce storm drives Jake deep into the bays for shelter, where he must come face to face with Redjack again. The virus they bring to their isolated island home changes forever the lives of those who remain. As the plot unfolds, discover how the simple trust of a small animal brings about redemption. From the award-winning author of The Last Beothuk and What Colour is the Ocean?

Gary Collins was born in a small, two-storey house by the sea in the town of Hare Bay, Bonavista North. He finished school at Brown Memorial High in the same town. He spent forty years in the logging and sawmilling business with his father, Theophilus, and son Clint. Gary was once Newfoundland’s youngest fisheries guardian. He managed log drives down spring rivers for years, spent seven seasons driving tractor-trailers over ice roads and the Beaufort Sea of Canada’s Western Arctic, and has been involved in the crab, lobster, and cod commercial fisheries.His writing career began when he was asked to write eulogies for deceased friends and family. He spent a full summer employed as a prospector before he wrote Soulis Joe’s Lost Mine; he liked the work so much, he went back to school to earn his prospecting certificate. A critically acclaimed author, he has written a total of eight books, including Cabot Island, The Last Farewell, Soulis Joe’s Lost Mine, Where Eagles Lie Fallen, Mattie Mitchell: Newfoundland’s Greatest Frontiersman, A Day on the Ridge, and the children’s illustrated book What Colour is the Ocean?, which he co-wrote with his granddaughter, Maggie Rose Parsons. The latter won an Atlantic Book Award: The Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration.Gary Collins is Newfoundland and Labrador’s favourite storyteller, and today he is known all over the province as the “Story Man.” His favourite pastimes are reading and writing, and playing guitar at his log cabin. He lives in Hare Bay, Newfoundland, with his wife, the former Rose Gill. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Gary Collins' profile page