The Night Stages

by Jane Urquhart

Overview

From one of Canada’s bestselling authors comes a stunning new novel of unusual emotional depth and compassion. Jane Urquhart’s richest, most rewarding novel to date.

Tam, an Englishwoman who served in World War II as an auxiliary pilot, was living on the remote, westerly shores of Ireland. But she’s decided to leave her lover, the meteorologist Niall, for New York City. During the journey, the airliner she is traveling on becomes grounded by heavy fog at Gander Airport in Newfoundland. Waiting for the fog to clear, she notices an enigmatic mural that moves her to revisit not only the circumstances that originally led her to Ireland but also her intense relationship with Niall and his growing despondency over the disappearance of his younger brother, Kieran, who, as a child, was separated from the family and taken in by a widowed countrywoman living in the mountains.

The Night Stages powerfully explores the meaning of separation, the sorrows of fractured families, and the profound effect of Ireland’s wild and elemental landscape on the lives shaped by its beauty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250097507
Publisher:	Picador Paper
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Jane Urquhart, one of Canada’s best-loved writers, is the author of several internationally acclaimed novels, a collection of stories, and four books of poetry. She is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Marian Engel Award and the Harboufront Festival Prize. Most recently she was named the Banff Distinguished Writer. She lives in Ontario, Canada, and occasionally in Ireland.

Editorial Reviews

For its language alone, The Night Stages will quickly earn its place among Urquhart's other globally acclaimed and award-winning novels. . . . Urquhart finds jewels of hope within the bleakness of emotional weather that she charts. The Night Stages is another tour de force by this exceptional author.” —The Toronto Star

“Urquhart's poetic, almost ethereal writing invites readers to revisit certain passages and marvel. This book about unquenchable longing is a lovely addition to her distinguished, award-filled oeuvre.” —Library Journal, starred review

“The acclaimed Canadian writer Jane Urquhart often works within a particular wistful mood-her stories, whether contemporary or historical, are full of dormant hurts, quietly endured; long separations; sorrows. The Night Stages, her tender, meditative eighth novel, again has this tenor, suggestive of John Banville and Alice McDermott . . . It feels like life: a little bigger than any of us on our own, our moments of loneliness less unique than we imagine.” —Charles Finch, The New York Times

“Thoughtful, multifaceted work. . . . Urquhart-whose prose at times flows from the same hand that has written four volumes of poetry-reveals her characters slowly, placing them within or privy to smaller narratives, vignettes, anecdotes that are themselves small marvels of storytelling and serve the several themes of love's pain, family turmoil, and the elusive sense of home and place, especially in light of Ireland's immigrant history. . . . Masterful.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred

The most compelling depiction of the sense of place in human lives —Alice Munro

"The Night Stages tells a story at once sweeping and intimate-of love and flight, of brothers and art, and of Ireland. In her crystalline prose, Jane Urquhart creates an emotional story that manages to feel both very real and deeply mythic. A beautiful, moving constellation of people, places, and ideas." —Jane Mendelsohn

From the Publisher