Broken Man on a Halifax Pier

Lesley Choyce

Oct 2019 · Dundurn

About this ebook

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 EVERGREEN AWARD
A tale of one man’s shipwrecked life and an unlikely crew of rescuers.

Fifty-five-year-old Charles Howard has lost his long-time journalism job and has been swindled out of his life savings. Standing by the edge of Halifax Harbour on a foggy morning, contemplating his dismal future, his ritual of self-pity is interrupted with the appearance of the mysterious and beguiling Ramona Danforth. And so begins a most interesting relationship.

On a whim, Charles asks Ramona to drive him to his childhood home, Stewart Harbour, a fishing village populated by rugged individualists far down Nova Scotia’s remote Eastern Shore. Charles left the Harbour immediately after graduating from high school and never looked back. And now that he's returned, the past starts catching up with him in ways he could never have imagined.

Ratings and reviews

Told in first person perspective of Charles, a now fifty-five year old man, feeling as if he has wasted his life and is simply wandering in Halifax, contemplating his next move. He’s in the midst of a massive pity-party, unemployed and now penniless, and isn’t sure where things went so horribly wrong. In the midst of it all, he meets Ramona: a woman who has had some ‘limited’ success in acting, but is also mostly trying to find amusement and where she should go next. Charlies intrigues her – perhaps she has a soft spot for broken and lost things, and you can’t get much lower than Charles at the moment – penniless and jobless, with no real fixed plan to remedy his situation. But, Charles has a niggling idea – what if he was to return to the coastal fishing village he left after high school, and perhaps see if answers he is seeking to where it all went wrong are there. He asks Ramona to drive him, and the journey brings them closer as it answers more questions and brings up more problems and history for Charles. The two are surprisingly similar: unable to form and keep lasting relationships, both able to stand up after repeated times being knocked down, both are lonely and have found lives full of great losses: their common ground despite being in rather different places growing up also bring a sort of bond between them. The narrative voice of Charles doesn’t allow readers to get too embroiled in the thoughts and feelings of Ramona – perhaps being filtered through Charles has some sort of muting effect – but the prose is lovely and the loneliness and isolation that both feel and deal with differently is palpable. From little moments of grief and hope, intermixed with memories, self-recrimination and insecurity – the story feels very much like a reader’s second hand view of a life revisited, allowing only time and revisited memories to affect the present. Cleverly presented with only Charles’ viewpoint, both people and the scenery is depicted with varying levels of care and interest, much seeming to correlate to Charles and his own emotional state at the time. Unlike anything else I’ve read in a ‘similar’ sort of vein, the story is one that is hard to put down, and provides plenty of imagery and food for thought. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Leslie Choyce, and Dundurn publishers. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my personal opinion of this work. Broken Man on a Halifax Pier is an exceptional read. I am pleased to recommend it to friends and family. I love books set on the rugged eastern coast of Nova Scotia. Lesley Choyce shares with us his intimate knowledge of this landscape, these people in a novel that keeps you reading far into the night. This is a special book. It qualifies as a romance - but our protagonists are 50 and 55 respectively, both have lived full lives and bring to the table a storied past, with pains and joys and baggage you would expect if you thought about it. Add in Hurricane Greta, the fragile coastline of the Eastern Coast of Nova Scotia, a few old fishermen and a couple of young adults and you have an excellent mix-up of angst, fear and rampant nature that will have you burning the midnight oil.

About the author

Lesley Choyce is the author of over ninety books. He has won the Dartmouth Book Award, the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and the Ann Connor Brimer Award, and has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. He lives in East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia.