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The Beautiful West & The Beloved of God
Guernica Editions, Fall 2014
268 pages
Trade Paperback
ISBN13: 9781550718584
ISBN10: 1550718584
English
$15.95 Canada, $15.95 US
Read more from the Essential Prose Series
Elena and Mahfouz meet in Montreal in the spring of 2008. That summer, however, Mahfouz doesn't return from a trip to Cairo, and his father is picked up and held indefinitely for unknown charges on undisclosed evidence. No longer in contact with each other, Elena and Mahfouz must separately come to terms with their historical situation, preparing for a future shaped by forces they struggle to understand.
Straps were tightened, the mouth gagged, the board lowered, and water again flowed over mouth and nostrils. Again the convulsions and oxygen levels were monitored as they sought new evidence for the plans Mahfouz had confessed.
I love the patient rhythm which creates in meticulous dialogue a mosaic of three Montreal families, their roots elsewhere. With reverberations in history, politics and philosophy, this is a humane, civil, and eminently Canadian world, yet the intensity and inevitability of the ending are overwhelming.
Leanore Lieblein, Editor and Translator
The Beautiful West & The Beloved of God is an amazing novel, frightening in its honesty, timely in its observations. Some of the scenes of Michael Springate’s unflinching picture of Western imperialism will leave you breathless.
Charles R. Lawson, Emeritus Professor of Literature at American University
This is an exceptional novel, set in Montreal and Egypt, that brings out the frightening turns in the tribal wars being played out all over the world. The author’s historical awareness amply supports a deeply personal and local story, giving it a global resonance.
Rana Bose, Author of The Fourth Canvas and Recovering Rude
The best and bravest book I’ve read in years. The Beautiful West & The Beloved of God is on par with the moral voices of Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn.
Charles Orloski, poet
Reviews
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East/West Strangleholds
Counterpunch - January 16, 2015
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To forget is to give in to fear
Montreal Serai - January 18, 2015
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Timothy Niedermann Reviews The Beautiful West
Ottawa Review of Books - January 31, 2015
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Deux Voiliers' Review
Goodreads - December 23, 2018
Books by Michael Springate
