D. R. MacDONALD was born in Cape Breton and grew up mostly in the United States. He has received two Pushcart Prizes, an Ingram Merrill Award and an O. Henry Award for his short fiction. His first novel, Cape Breton Road, received critical acclaim and became a national bestseller. His second novel, Lauchlin Of The Bad Heart, was longlisted for the Giller Prize, while Anna From Away was shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. MacDonald is a lecturer emeritus at Stanford University and spends his summers in Boularderie, Nova Scotia, in a renovated barn on family property.