I Will Tell the Night by Kevin Thomas Craig

On a number of occasions here at The Miramichi Reader, I’ve been tapped as the person to review a book because of my special knowledge, interests, and/or skills. However, as changes happened in my life and others’, a new and exciting development has occurred (or maybe it’s one I now think about more concretely): I’ve been assigning myself the duty of reading those titles which are intimately connected to the Miramichi, as part of my own way to keep the ties I developed alive and well. Which makes my choice to read and review I Will Tell the Night to be a interesting one on the surface, because it follows a man who left Miramichi 30 years prior and only goes home to confront his lifelong pain about his family and life when he gets the call his mother is dying. This is a story about coming home again. And while Finn is looking for the place he left and is confused about the present-day Miramichi, I’ve been missing that very same one. So a fun little exercise for anyone who does read this novel and has spent some time on the river – you’ll be having a conversation with Finn about the city as it is now, and how it has changed from the city he remembers. For me, this was a wonderful bonus to reading it, and obviously it is always fun to see a story play out in a place which you know so well.

Finn is living his life in Toronto, nurturing a new relationship, working, all of those boring normal every day things, when his brother and sister call to tell him that he needs to come home to say good-bye to his dying mother. Finn left home at eighteen, and hasn’t been back in almost thirty years, keeping himself away from a dysfunctional family who never accepted him as a gay man, and a town he didn’t feel like he belonged, and the scandal he’s kept buried down inside of him – the reason he created so he could work up the nerve to finally get out of New Brunswick.

It’s a sweet and tender read, surprisingly wholesome

Over the course of the novel, Finn starts to untangle the events that led him away from town and away from his family, repairing, forgiving, and learning to handle each other. There’s love in the places he forgot to look, and thirty years of life to back him up in the fights he needs to have. And there’s a partner of eight months, Steven, who willingly took on this trip with him, and has been firmly supportive through the return to a place of great significance and trauma. The story takes place over a handful of days in Nelson, and is an emotionally fraught journey of healing. It’s not wildly innovative or hard-hitting, but what it is, a story about coming home and facing your past, is well-done. It’s a sweet and tender read, surprisingly wholesome (if you know any Miramichiers, this is what passes for wholesome. I felt cared for by the river in Craig’s very realistic dialogue). It’s painful to read a number of Finn’s memories, but there’s something very cathartic in watching him start to heal, as well as say some of the things perhaps we wish we had said or will get to say someday to those who’ve hurt us.

I Will Tell the Night is a touching novel about going home again. There are so many vivid details in Craig’s work, and it will fill one with a bit of necessary hope.

Kevin Craig is the author of young adult novels and adult-themed novels featuring young narrators. They live in Toronto, Canada. Their latest work is the mixed genre horror/fantasy/contemporary young adult novel, BOOK OF DREAMS (Sept, 2022 from Duet Books, the YA imprint of Chicago Review Press). Their novel, THE CAMINO CLUB (Oct, 2020 from Duet Books, the YA imprint of Chicago Review Press), was written after their first walk across Spain on the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. THE CAMINO CLUB was a 2021 Silver Winner of the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Award. Kevin’s previous novels include; PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE, BURN BABY BURN BABY, and SUMMER ON FIRE. Kevin is a 5-time winner of the Muskoka Novel Marathon’s BEST NOVEL AWARD. They have also had twelve plays produced for the stage, both within Canada and internationally.

Publisher: Independent (January 7 2025)
Paperback: 15.24 x 22.86 cm | 303 pp
ISBN: ‎ 979-8303594326

Alison Manley

Website

Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.