Consolation — Michael Redhill

From the award-winning author of Martin Sloane and Fidelity comes a riveting story of two families in two different centuries--one searching for the past, the other creating a record of it. Before his death, David Hollis determined the location of an invaluable treasure: a trove of photographs, the earliest pictures ever taken of Toronto. The glass negatives were presumably in a strongbox on a ship that sank in the city's harbor a century and a half earlier. That wreck, by David's calculations, now lay beneath a landfill in the process of being excavated for a new sports arena. If construction can be halted for a search, a unique record of the city's birth might be reclaimed for all. Facing skepticism and resistance, David's widow, Marianne, embarks on a wrenching quest to find the photos, with the avid help--whether she wants it or not--of her daughter's fiance. Each step of their path reveals more about David's motivations and about Jem Hallam, the English immigrant who, according to David, took the pictures. CONSOLATION moves back and forth between the stories of David's legacy and Jem Hallam's life, revealing a mysterious connection. Hallam's story recaptures a young metropolis in vivid physical detail, as he struggles to reinvent himself in a cold, inhospitable new world. Survival itself is at stake in his life, while love and pride drive Marianne Hollis. Michael Redhill's brilliantly written novel places all of these human goals on an equal plane, making each thread of the story an unforgettable and suspenseful tale.