The Gift Child by Elaine McCluskey

No one writes Dartmouth as well as Elaine McCluskey writes Dartmouth.

As someone who now calls Dartmouth Nova Scotia home, I honestly believe that no one writes Dartmouth as well as Elaine McCluskey writes Dartmouth. She reads like Dartmouth royalty writing about their kingdom. McCluskey is sharply observant, and her character descriptions feel so familiar yet fresh. One thing is for sure, she knows how Nova Scotians live and bleed. This is a novel about Dartmouth, about messy, dysfunctional families, about grief, and about living in giant shadows.

This novel focuses on Harriet, who recently lost her job, is dealing with her father, secrets, and the loss of herself. We open with a small-town mystery: the disappearance of Harriet’s wayward cousin Graham, last seen riding away on his bicycle with a tuna head in his basket from a wharf in small town Nova Scotia. Harriet, a former photojournalist, is trying to see if she can put any pieces together amid her own family secrets and her own slight falling apart. We meet her larger than life, narcissistic father, a former beloved broadcaster, who in his own selfish ways had recently been trying to “help” Graham, mostly because he is bored in retirement and needs someone to boss around. McCluskey’s writing is sharp and widely observant on the strangeness of people, those on the outskirts of society and those in her own family. Her insightful quips on her own parents and upbringing often stopped me in my tracks: “when a parent is critical of strangers, it distorts your thinking.”

The story and writing in The Gift Child is jumpy and twisty, with an unreliable narrator, and it feels sometimes like falling into a strange fever dream but a good fever dream. We meet all kinds of peculiar characters and petty criminals, undercover agents, and rich Americans buying pretentious houses in Nova Scotia. The novel is a reflection on memory, family and the absurdity of the human race. Oh, and somehow this is all connected to UFO incidents and Shag Harbour? Peppered throughout the story are some interesting facts about famous Nova Scotians including Brad Marchand and Sidney Crosby, among others. One thing is for sure, Elaine McClusky captures the goofy spirit of Nova Scotians with precision, charm, and wit. This novel is sure to please.

Elaine McCluskey is a critically acclaimed fiction writer based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Her 2022 collection Rafael Has Pretty Eyes won the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction. McCluskey’s stories have appeared in The Antigonish Review, Room, and subterrain. The Gift Child is her seventh book of fiction.

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions (March 19, 2024)
Paperback 8″ x 6″ | 340 pages
ISBN: 9781773103242