In an isolated Newfoundland outport, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines throws his plans into chaos – the opening salvo in a battle that spirals into violence and divides their community, with devastating consequences. From the critically acclaimed author of The Innocents comes a dark, enthralling novel about the corruption of power and the power of corruption.

About Michael Crummey

Michael Crummey is the author of six novels: River Thieves, The Wreckage, Galore, Sweetland, The Innocents, and now The Adversary. He has also written the memoir Newfoundland: Journey into a Lost Nation; seven books of poetry, and the short fiction collection Flesh and Blood. His novels have been shortlisted multiple times for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and have won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Michael Crummey lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The Adversary (2023)

In an isolated outport on Newfoundland’s northern coastline, a ruthless act of sabotage is the start of a vendetta between the man and woman who own the largest mercantile firms. Each is fighting for the scarce resources of the fishery, and seeking revenge on the person they despise most. Through predatory storms and pandemics and marauding privateers, The Adversary is a masterful evocation of a lost time, and a shadowed mirror to our modern politics of grievance and retribution.

Jacqueline Baker’s debut short story collection, A Hard Witching, was shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won both the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Alberta Book Award for short fiction. Her first novel, The Horseman’s Graves, was published in 2007. Her most recent novel is The Broken Hours, a ghost story about the final days of H. P. Lovecraft’s life. She teaches creative writing at MacEwan University in Edmonton.