John E. McDonald believes himself to be very lucky indeed: a tenure track professor who’s been given the office space once occupied by Lester B. Pearson. Admired for his take on Canadian history, which investigates the role played by the Indigenous peoples and the women who made possible the exploits of the supposed “great men of history,” McDonald’s take is unorthodox, fresh, and challenging; it’s more compassionate and inclusive. He’s motivated in no small part to escape the long shadow of his bombastically conservative father.

Quickly, though, McDonald’s world begins to unravel. He loses his office to another professor, his beloved older brother is beset with a health issue, and he begins a romance with an opera singer. Determined to make a new start, he leaves his tenure-track position at a large urban university to be a sessional in a smaller institution — he’s asked to participate in a competition, the prize for which is a sixteen-million dollar endowment for a chair in Canadian history.

With deft comic turns and strikingly touching moments, Jeff Wilson’s Castor’s Choice is as readable and enjoyable as the best of Terry Fallis.

Jeff Wilson is a writer and a technology executive. His wife, children, and employers believe he is an eight-year-old trapped in a grown man’s body, shameless in his pursuit of humour. Even when writing about important stuff — Canadian identity, culture and history, love, loss, and the importance of music — there is always a cupped hand under his armpit. The Castor’s Choice is his debut novel. He resides in Toronto, Ontario.

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