Burridge Unbound

Review“Burridge Unbound is a story about the fragility of life, life pushed to the edge. It is a brilliant depiction of a man at a precarious crossroads. The novel is breathtaking, almost impossible to put down. Alan Cumyn is a writer of remarkable talent.”–Alistair MacLeod“Though it charges forward like a thriller, Burridge Unbound also unfolds like a prayer.…If you were dazzled by the film The Year of Living Dangerously, you will admire Cumyn’s finesse at steering you out of Burridge’s domestic drama and into a jungle of intrigue.”–National Post“An exceptional achievement.…All I can think of is how chillingly real the core of Mr. Cumyn’s story is.…–*Ottawa Citizen“A riveting story.…”–Globe and Mail“A worthy achievement.…Cumyn is a promising author, worth following. He can write – his convincing portrait of Burridge alone, in all his psychological complexity, is highly original and no small feat.”–Toronto Star*“In electrifying prose, by turns violent, manic, and deeply sad, Alan Cumyn charts his lurching, rubble-strewn, chaotic, and strangely heroic course.”–Jury Citation for The Giller Prize by Margaret Atwood, Alistair MacLeod, and Jane Urquhart“Burridge Unbound is a thrilling piece of literary fiction. Cumyn has taken an explosive subject and made a fine novel out of it.”–Edmonton Journal“Cumyn’s writing is breathtakingly good. . . . He develops Burridge as a darkly humorous Everyman.…The novel is a beautiful and painful slice of reality.…”–Ottawa Life“The book takes on the dimensions of a thriller, taut, mesmerizing, horrific. It isn’t easy reading, but Cumyn is such a fine writer that... Product DescriptionAfter surviving a terrifying ordeal at the hands of terrorists in the South Pacific island of Santa Irene, Bill Burridge returns home to Ottawa and casts himself single-mindedly into building a human-rights organization to stand watch over the world’s most troubled areas. Yet, plagued by memories of his incarceration and by the strain of his disintegrating marriage, he is a man struggling to hold his life together. When a democratic revolution stands Santa Irene on a knife-edge between chaos and healing, Burridge reluctantly agrees to serve on a Truth Commission there to investigate past atrocities. Taut, intelligent, and written in the compelling, often sardonic voice of Bill Burridge, Cumyn’s gripping novel immerses us in a shadowy world of betrayals and shifting loyalties, and reveals the intricate, rejuvenating bonds of human relationships. Bill Burridge’s voice is infectious, his story a remarkable one as the novel builds to its climactic final scenes.From the Trade Paperback edition.