Guernica Editions

Set in Toronto 1970, just as the FLQ crisis emerges to shake an innocent country, eleven year old Johnny Wong uncovers an underbelly to his tight, downtown neighbourhood. He shares a room with his Chinese immigrant mother in a neighbourhood of American draft dodgers and new Canadians. In a span of a few weeks his world seesaws. He is befriended by Rollie, one of the draft dodgers who takes on a fatherly and writing mentor role. Johnny's mother is threatened by the “children's warfare society.” Meany Ming, one of the characters by the rooming house is found murdered. He suspects the feline loving neighbour, the Catwoman. Inspired by an episode of Mannix, he tries to break into her house. Ultimately he is betrayed but he must act to save his family. He discovers a distant kinship with Jean, the son of one of the hostages kidnapped by the FLQ who have sent Canada into a crisis.

Mother told them she herd nothing and saw nothing. The police asked if any body else herd any thing or knew if any body would want to hurt Meany Ming. I wanted to say Catwoman should be a suspect. But mother looked at me hard so I just stared at the floor and shaked my head but I also peeked at his gun and was going to ask to see the bullets too. But I did not. The police stayed on the street until it was dark. They put yellow police tape around the house. I was going to tell mother about the fight between Meany Ming and the Catwoman but she gave me some thing. It was a letter. She said it was from my useless father. When my mother says some body is useless it is the worst thing she can say about anybody.

Reviews

• Marc Brown reviews Letters From Johnny
  The Ottawa Review of Books - March 4, 2021

Links

• Goodreads
• CBC Books: 58 Canadian works of fiction coming out in Spring 2021
• Letters From Johnny featured on CBC Books
• CKCU Asking for a Friend: Interview with Susan Johnston
• Interview with Wayne Ng, author of “Letters from Johnny” in Ricepaper Magazine
• Book Trailer
• CBC Radio Metro Morning with Jill Dempsey