It is summer and the Canadian Rockies are on fire. Fleeing the fallout of a failed relationship, Alan West returns to his grandfather's home in the Kootenay Valley. Cecil West, an old man confronted by his own mortality, asks Alan to track down his son, Alan's father, so that Cecil can make his peace with him. And so Alan begins his search for Jack West: a man who skipped town before Alan could walk. His quest will lead him to Archer, an American soldier who long ago went AWOL across the border. The young man and the old soldier set off on a reckless journey. What they find will change their lives forever.
D. W. Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia's inaugural Man Booker Prize Scholarship - the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and 'The Dead Roads' won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. He lives in Cambridge. Once You Break a Knuckle, his debut story collection, was published by Bloomsbury in 2012. It was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
