From David Adams Richards, one of Canada's finest writers, The Bay of Love and Sorrows is an unflinching story of ambition and betrayal. The novel begins as the once-strong friendship between Michael Skid, the privileged young son of a judge from town, and farmhand Tommie Donnerel collapses under the weight of a bitter misunderstanding. As Michael sets out to prove something to himself and others, he becomes drawn into the company of the beautiful and determined Madonna Brassaurd and her brother, Silver, and together the three are soon seduced by the glamour of Everette Hutch, a charismatic but violent man. Bridging the decent world of Tommie Donnerel and the darker realm of the Brassaurds and Everette Hutch is Karrie Smith, whose deep longing for a more exciting life makes her especially vulnerable to a world she does not completely understand.

David Adams Richards was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick. His celebrated body of work has earned numerous awards and accolades to date, most notably for his prose, poetry, novels, and screenplays. All examine the fundamental conflict between individual conscience and truth versus community, history, and perceptions.

Adams Richards recent novels include River of the Brokenhearted (2003), a depiction of a family whose fortunes rise and fall with the success of its movie theatres, The Friends of Meager Fortune (2006), an exploration of the dying days of the lumber industry, which won the Commonwealth Prize (Canada and the Caribbean), and The Lost Highway (2007), a suspenseful story of greed, betrayal, and Murder. Lines on the Water, about fishing on the Miramichi, won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction in 1998, making Richards one of a very select group; he is only the third person to win Governor General literary awards in two different categories. The first novel in his Miramichi trilogy, Nights Below Station Street, received the Governor Generals Award for fiction in 1988. Mercy Among the Children was co-winner of the Giller Prize in 2000. It has also won the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for both novel of the year and author of the year in 2001.

David Adams Richards, né en 1950 à Newcastle, au Nouveau-Brunswick, est un auteur prolifique : il a fait paraître treize romans, un recueil de nouvelles ainsi que trois essais. Son succès critique et commercial ne cesse de s’accroître. Le roman Road to the Stilt House a été mis en nomination pour un Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général en 1985, et en 1988 l’auteur recevait cette même distinction pour Nights Below Station Street, premier volet de sa trilogie du Miramichi. Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace a été primé par la Canadian Authors Association en 1991, et trois ans plus tard, For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down a valu à Richards la récompense littéraire Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize.

Les œuvres plus tardives de Richards sont tout aussi bien reçues par la critique. En 1998, son essai Lines on the Water sur la pêche à la ligne dans le Miramichi est honoré du Prix du Gouverneur général, et il se place dès lors au sein d’un groupe enviable : il est seulement le troisième auteur à obtenir la prestigieuse récompense dans deux catégories. En 2000, Mercy Among the Children [La Malédiction Henderson] remporte ex aequo le Giller Prize et, en 2001, la Canadian Booksellers Association récompense Richards du Prix Libris dans les catégories roman de l’année et auteur de l’année. Parmi ses romans les plus récents, on compte River of the Brokenhearted (2003), les hauts et les bas d’une famille au fil des succès et des défaites d’une salle de cinéma; The Friends of Meager Fortune (2006), qui explore de la fin de l’ère de l’industrie forestière, qui a valu à son auteur le Prix du Commonwealth pour la région du Canada et des Caraïbes; et The Lost Highway (2007), une intrigante histoire d’avarice, de trahison et de meurtre.

David Adams Richards' profile page

"In The Bay of Love and Sorrows, one of the world's finest web-spinners crafts a superb and riveting yarn guaranteed to satisfy readers craving an unforgettable fictional feast." —The Toronto Star

"Thoroughly engrossing. . . the eloquent spareness of the prose and the speed with which events unfold is breathtaking." —The Globe and Mail

"His novels will make you cry, not for the sadness of it all . . . not for the pain of loss, but for the beauty of it all, the tragic and comic beauty." —Sheldon Currie, author of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum (filmed as Margaret’s Museum)

"The deft, understated artistry with which Richards conveys his vision is exhilarating. . . ." —Maclean’s

"How can one not feel anything but immense gratitude for such powerful work of the literary imagination." —Eric Tretheway, The Fiddlehead

"It’s his voice, really, which mesmerizes. Few writers have so distinct an ululation, so hypnotic a cry, so intoxicating a lament. When David Adams Richards writes, narration fuses with incantation. . . .” —Vancouver Sun

"I predict that a century from now readers will discover in Richards’ novels and short stories the same heartbreaking treasures we find in the novels of Thomas Hardy." —Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"His voice is one of the most powerful and necessary to be found in Canadian fiction today." —Ottawa Citizen