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These are among the last words of Professor David Hollis before he throws himself off a ferry into the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. A renowned professor of “forensic geology,” David leaves in his wake both a historical mystery and an academic scandal. He postulated that on the site where a sports arena is about to be built lie the ruins of a Victorian boat containing an extraordinary treasure: a strongbox full of hundreds of never-seen photographs of early Toronto, a priceless record of a lost city. His colleagues, however, are convinced that he faked his research materials.
Determined to vindicate him, his widow, Marianne, sets up camp in a hotel overlooking the construction site, watching and waiting for the boat to be unearthed. The only person to share her vigil is John Lewis, fiancé to her daughter, Bridget. An orphan who had come to love David as his own father, John finds himself caught in a struggle between mother and daughter–all the while keeping a dark secret from both women.
Interwoven into the contemporary story is another narrative set in 1850s: the tale of Jem Hallam, a young apothecary struggling to make a living in the harsh new city so he can bring his wife and daughters from England. Crushed by ruthless competitors, he develops an unlikely friendship with two other down-on-their-luck Torontonians: Samuel Ennis, a brilliant but dissolute Irishman, and Claudia Rowe, a destitute widow. Together they establish a photography business and set out to create images of a fledgling city where wooden sidewalks are put together with penny nails, where Indians spear salmon at the river mouth and the occasional bear ambles down King Street, where department stores display international wares and fine mansions sit cheek-by-jowl with shantytowns.
Consolation moves back and forth between David Hollis’s legacy and Jem Hallam’s struggle to survive, ultimately revealing a mysterious connection between the two narratives. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully written, Michael Redhill’s superlative book reveals how history is often transformed into a species of fantasy, and how time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. As complex and layered as the city whose story it tells, Consolation evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of the beloved truly means.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
February 24, 2009 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307371959
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307371959
- File size: 396 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 27, 2006
Redhill's signature poetic touch and finely drawn characters are on display in his second novel (after story collection Fidelity
and novel Martin Sloane
), an homage to Toronto, from its rough and tumble past to its contemporary civility. After avid historian and archivist David Hollis dies, his widow, Marianne, takes on the task of confirming his unfounded claim about the location of the long-lost first photographs ever taken of the city. She's joined by her soon to be son-in-law John, an earnest writer's assistant who seeks to bring his fiancée and mother-in-law together in their grief. Their examination of the past, both in the purview of David's completed life and the panoramic city history, is interwoven with the story of Jem Hallam, a Londoner who moved to Toronto in its Wild West days and found himself allied with a female portrait model and a brokenhearted Irishman. The stories fit together in an unexpected way, and Redhill's taste for quiet examination of relationships, grief and small failures of love make for a thought-provoking read.
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