Shelf Control #2

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out the introductory post, Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday.

Title: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
Author: Wayne Johnson

Published: 1998
Length: 562 pages

What it’s about (quoted from jacket copy): "A mystery and a love story spanning five decades. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of relentless ambition. Two of the most irresistible characters ever encountered in fiction grace its pages: Joe Smallwood, who claws his way from obscurity to become Newfoundland's first premier; and Sheilagh Fielding, a popular newspaper columnist who casts a haunting shadow over Smallwood's life and career."

How and when I got it: I was on vacation in Montreal in 2018 and came across a delightful used bookstore--the really good kind with books packed every direction into the shelves--and asked the man working there (who turned out to be the owner) what he recommended as a quintessential Canadian book. This was the book he suggested so I bought it. 

Why I want to read it: I am always on the lookout for new-to-me Canadian writers (to read for the Canadian Reading Challenge). I also really like the title. 

How it begins: "You may not know it yet, but I am back in St. John's. Six months since Confederation. The past is literally another country now."