Two More Solitudes

Sheldon Currie plumbs new depths in this novel inspired by Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes. Ian MacDonald is searching for himself, for a career, for home, and for redemption. Yet Ian, a man with a talent for baseball, seems to use “the suicide pitch” with rather unerring aim as he runs from one woman to another. Set in both Nova Scotia and Quebec, Currie's novel follows Ian's quest through his encounters with a torch-singing nun, an old flame, and a woman who seeks more than friendship. As Ian struggles to find his place, for a time literally not knowing who he is, Currie guides readers through a journey full of eccentric but fully human characters, all trying to live in worlds that do not always accommodate their dreams and desires. Two More Solitudes resonates with the burdens of memory, disappointment, uncertainty, death - and most particularly with the pleasures and pains of life itself. At times funny and poignant, Two More Solitudes is also a rich and subtle exploration of how Ian and those around him find their way - in the world, with themselves, and with others.