"Prison is a huge lightless room filled with hundreds of blind, groping men, perplexed and apprehensive and certain that the world is filled with nothing but their enemies, at whom they must flail each time they brush against them..."
From the moment he was stopped by police looking for drugs, Andreas Schroeder knew he was on his way to prison. Unlike most, he felt he deserved his two-year sentence. So he went without bitterness or resentment. And that, more than anything, helped him understand how it works "inside." This book is sympathetic, understanding and thought-provoking in its portrayal of people caught up in the prison world, who suffer its wrenching isolation and relentless need to "get along.".
Shaking It Rough is a sensitively-observed, moving portrayal of a world too little understood by the public at large.

Andreas Schroeder is the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations, journalism and literary criticism. His books have won or been shortlisted for many awards including the Governor-General’s Award, the Sealbooks First Novel Award, the Stephen Leacock Award, the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction and the Red Maple Award. For his literary journalism he was shortlisted for a National Magazine Award, and won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Best Investigative Journalism Award. He received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University College of the Fraser Valley in 2002. Schroeder currently holds the Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Nonfiction in the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program. He lives in Roberts Creek on BC’s Sunshine Coast with his wife Sharon Oddie Brown.

Andreas Schroeder's profile page

"A remarkable and moving book."

Margaret Laurence

"The best prison memoir I have read for a long time."

Canadian Forum

"A talented storyteller."

Calgary Herald

"Crisp and telling."

Maclean's

"Tough and tender."

Ottawa Citizen

"Fresh and interesting."

New York Times