Set in the short window between the release of the movie Jaws and the first Star Wars movie, The Marvels of Youth is both a paean to the magic of a child's imagination and a compelling mystery. When Sean learns of the death of the owner of the comic bookstore in the small town along the shores of the Fraser River that he grew up in, he is transported back in his memory to a fateful year, when he stumbled upon an affair that could ignite the tensions of his working-class town. As the mystery unfolds, Bowling paints a rich picture of life in a fishing town, of striking workers and hard choices alongside the moments of awe and unexpected joy that a child faces at the edge of adulthood. Filled with unforgettable characters and beautifully layered storytelling The Marvels of Youth is a sweeping, glimmering tale, as mesmerizing as the river that flows through it.

Tim Bowling has published numerous poetry collections, including Low Water Slack; Dying Scarlet (winner of the 1998 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for poetry); Darkness and Silence (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry); The Witness Ghost; and The Memory Orchard (both nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award). He is also the author of three novels, Downriver Drift (Harbour), The Paperboy's Winter (Penguin) and The Bone Sharps (Gaspereau Press). His first book of non-fiction, The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture (Nightwood Editions), was shortlisted for three literary awards: The Writers' Trust Nereus Non-Fiction Award, the BC Book Prizes' Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and the Alberta Literary Awards' Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction. The Lost Coast was also chosen as a 2008 Kiriyama Prize "Notable Book." Bowling is the recipient of the Petra Kenney International Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Award and the Orillia International Poetry Prize. Bowling was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. A native of the West Coast, he now lives in Edmonton Alberta. His latest collection of poetry is Tenderman (Nightwood), due out in fall 2011.

Tim Bowling's profile page

"Bowling brings an era to life, not with sentimentality, but with recognition of all that is vital – the moments, the people, and the present that is shaped and sustained by that time."

Miramichi Reader