Home – Linebound – A novel by Peter Turner

I just finished Linebound. It is an extraordinary book, funny, sad, wise and important. It made me laugh frequently. The stories and language that only anglo québécoise can fully appreciate. It brought sadness into focus, but always portrayed it as a part of living. As Uncle Lloyd said, grief is the strongest emotion. And the grief was not just about living and dying but of the fading of a community and perhaps even a dream.

The sadness and joy and ribaldry of the characters and the situations they confront are telling of the many lines that must be crossed (or not) underlined for me the struggle we all share not to be linebound in one way or the other.

It is a Quebecois book first, but a Canadian book too, managing to defy gravity that tries to push us in only one way. The book shows that the ambiguity in which we live is what makes life interesting, challenging and worthwhile.

Peter McCauslan

“I very much enjoyed Linebound. The characters and the whole story felt very real and so much of it felt familiar. It provided a unique view on the contrasts and challenges between cultures and classes, with a real touch of humanity that was bittersweet and sad in places, while outrageous, hilariously funny and ribald in many other. I laughed aloud on a quite a few occasions.”
– Charles Crawford

“À la fois hilarant et profond — dramatique même —, le livre de Peter Turner est le livre d’un écrivain authentique. Il met en scène une foule de personnages pittoresques, et la truculence de l’écriture est parfois rabelaisienne. Rien de moins. À travers anecdotes, aventures et situations improbables, Linebound est une méditation sur la condition de l’Anglais dans des Cantons-de-l’Est qu’il ne reconnaît plus comme étant sa patrie. Un livre à lire absolument pour quiconque s’interroge sur les Deux Solitudes — ou pour quiconque a envie de lire un roman formidable, écrit de main de maître.”
– Michel Rudel-Tessier

“I really had a hard time putting it down and enjoyed reading it. It brought back many old memories – especially as Suzanne (my wife) who is a Francophone from Quebec City. Now we are living in Vermont and you hit it right on regarding the French/English and now U.S. family issues.”
– Steve Selby (Vermont)

“You’ve really captured the Anglo frustration, desperation, the joy, pride and confusion we’ve all lived with or witnessed while making a life in this beautiful part of the world. Through Bill’s working in medical politics, I was privileged to meet many warm and caring Francophone doctors and their partners from all areas of Quebec. It was a priceless education, expanding my love of the people history and language of the province I adopted when l departed Nova Scotia.”
– Jane Barakett (Knowlton)

“Cette excellente saga éclaire et ouvre des portes. A lire.”
– Robert Toupin

“Linebound” is an old Eastern Townships word referring to those who have been banned from crossing the nearby border between Quebec and Vermont. Peter Turner’s novel is the story of a country lawyer navigating the borderlands of life.

Charlie England, an Anglo born in 1975 on his family’s 200-year old Eastern Townships farm, rides both sides of the line between English and French culture, the vividness of life and bleakness of death, and the profound changes from a centuries old way of life to a world with no apparent regard for what it has lost.

With humour, humility, and honesty, we trace Charlie’s path between harsh and hilarious early lessons in farm and country life to football scholarships and heartache at Laval. His story is punctuated by absurd but uniquely human legal cases threaded through a married life that rolls through valleys of passion then isolation. Linebound is the story of a man between a moment of social, cultural, and personal upheaval, and the messy space of difference and tolerance that is vital to making it all work.

Special Offer

More Reader Comments

Contact