The Sunbeam Room

by Scott Charlton Paul

United by blood, but divided by life experience, geography and politics, Sarah and Digger couldn’t be more different.

A failed marriage, a crippling injury, and losing his only family connection leave Digger, a sixty-one-year-old Alberta oil sands worker, alone and directionless until his mother’s shocking confession and dying wish upends his life.

Sarah is a cautious number-crunching actuary in Ottawa. But her ordered world collapses when her husband Pieter is diagnosed with early-onset dementia just as the world shuts down.

In The Sunbeam Room, Digger embarks on a TransCanada quest to honour his mother’s dying hand deliver a letter to Sarah, the daughter she gave up at birth.

In the wake of the Freedom Convoy, Digger confronts winter roads, angry truckers, and a midnight moose on his odyssey to the nation’s capital. But he arrives at the worst possible time for a beleaguered Sarah, still grieving the loss of Pieter and battling social isolation.

Suddenly siblings, will Digger and Sarah be able to cross the great divide, reconcile their differences, and embrace newfound family in the unlikeliest of people–each other?

In this literary novel about loss, love, and finding hope in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, Scott Charlton Paul interprets the hearts of opposites to give readers fresh insights into the meaning of family.

330 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2024

Reviews

[Doug Oster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet Digger. He's a mess. He's lost his job in Alberta to pandemic restrictions, has little education, a history of being abused for his lack of intelligence and he has few connections with the world. Meet Carolyn. She's angry. She lives in Ottawa and loathes the occupation of her city by noisy and vulgar, in her mind, Albertans. Digger and Caroline are destined to meet despite the chaos of the times and a well hidden, secret connection between the two.

Mr Paul has created a rather good sense of time and place. Through him we go across a wintry and divided Canada to see what really matters most in, well, two messy lives.

[Laura Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of journeys, literal and emotional. Digger will break your heart as you follow him on his path to do the right thing. The book captures the experience of being in Ottawa during the Freedom Convoy but invites the reader to rethink other perspectives that at the time, were blurred.

As an Ottawan, it took me back to a place where as a nation we struggled to understand ourselves and each other.

Sarah and Digger are two unlikely relatives but they too must take their journey.

I really loved this book, it is snapshot of Canadian society at a time of turmoil and anger. Indeed its relevance doesn’t end there. Highly recommend.

[Reader]

As a small town Alberta resident, this book brought back so many Covid memories I had totally forgotten. It is great to see this time in history recorded. The account of the Alzheimer’s husband was all too real and it captured many of my feelings with my own father. Well written - full of surprises! Worth the read!

[Peyton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a quick read. Sarah and Digger are the main characters, but I found them to be uninteresting and unrelatable, so I struggled to be pulled into the story. This book is set during COVID with the Freedom Convoy as the background and I did not enjoy being brought into that world again, so that also made my reading less enjoyable. The writing is alright and it’s a decent debut novel.

[Donna Glawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, it was so easy to read. I hope there will be more novels from this author.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! A truly southern Alberta novel set during a very trying time. The characters are believable and multi dimensional It’s so wonderful to read a story set in our area. Love, forgiveness and redemption

[J Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read The Sunbeam Room to fall in love with Canada and its people. The book sweeps you on an adventure across the country, telling a story of family, duty, and hope in trying times. Scott deftly pulls you into the lives of his characters. The further I read, the more I was invested in their stories, troubles, and relationships. A fantastic debut novel.

[Bonny Beswick · Rating 5 out of 5]

While The Sunbeam Room was not always a comfortable read ( it took me back to the dark days of the pandemic, where fear, distrust, and fact was often brushed aside by zealots and conspiracy theorists, it also reminded me that no matter how far apart we often are, if each side can give a little, we can find common ground.

Usually when an author switches from one POV character to the other, I am invested more heavily in one than the other(s), but in this case, I eagerly wanted to follow each one -- both wanting more, but also wanting to get back to the other one as soon as possible. The author did a wonderful job of engaging me in the POV of both main characters.

The author has a beautiful way of immersing the reader in the world of his characters. From Digger's frustrations, to Sarah's grief, I read deep into the night to find out the ending.

Cameo appearances by eccentric Samuel the librarian made me laugh.

I loved this book.