Through Sunlight and Shadows is an autobiographical novel about a young boy set in the small New Brunswick town of Bannonbridge in the 1940s and 1950s. The story is told from the perspective of an older man, Walt Macbride, a character well known to readers of other Raymond Fraser novels. "When I think back to those early days," he says, "my first feeling is of darkness inside our home, and sunshine in the yard outside. But if I think a little more I can find sunshine within and darkness without." Macbride's "memoir" is a vivid portrayal of childhood, a time when every experience is new and fresh, and when the innocence and bright expectations of the young inevitably run into life's not always kind realities. Those who began life in the middle of the last century frequently describe that era as "the best time of all to have been young," and a town like Bannonbridge as "the greatest place in the world to grow up in."

Raymond Fraser graduated in 1964 and has been a full-time writer ever since. He has written eight books of fiction, two biographies, five poetry collections, and a volume of memoirs, essays, and stories. His novel The Bannonbridge Musicians (Breakwater, 1978) was runner-up for the Governor General's Award. His most recent book is In Another Life (Lion's Head, 2009(, a novel.

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One of the most gifted writers I know, and among his gifts are two that are all too rare: a zest for life and a sense of humour. He belongs to the timeless tradition of storytellers.

Alden Nowlan