By turns savage, biting, funny, poetic, and heartbreaking, Megan Gail Coles's debut novel rips into the inner lives of a wicked cast of characters, exposing class, gender, and racial tensions over the course of one Valentine's Day in the dead of a winter storm. The story unfolds on Valentine's Day during a fierce blizzard threatening the city. Inside The Hazel restaurant, a storm system of sex, betrayal, addiction, and hurt is breaking overhead. The narrative follows Iris (a young hostess), Damian (a hungover server), and Olive (observing from outside) through the chaos of the day. Through rolling blackouts, we glimpse the truth behind the shroud of scathing lies and unrelenting abuse, and discover that resilience proves most enduring in the dead of this winter's tale. source
Scene
“Olive waits below the sad mural painted in memory of some long ago drowned boy. She can see up and down Duckworth Street from her perch though there's not much to see this early in the morning. A scattered taxi slogs by carrying fiendish-looking passengers who attempt to discreetly smoke from barely cracked windows.”
CBC Books reproduces the novel's opening; Coles confirms the book is set at the fictional Hazel on Duckworth Street, downtown St. John's.
Megan Gail Coles, Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club, excerpted on CBC Books — source
