Peninsula Sinking

by David Huebert

Winner of the 2018 Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction Runner-Up for the 2017 Danuta Gleed Literary Award Shortlisted for the 2018 Alastair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction In Peninsula Sinking , David Huebert brings readers an assortment of Maritimers caught between the places they love and the siren call of elsewhere. From submarine officers to prison guards, oil refinery workers to academics, each character in these stories struggles to find some balance of spiritual and emotional grace in the world increasingly on the precipice of ruin. Peninsula Sinking offers up eight urgent and electric meditations on the mysteries of death and life, of grief and love, and never shies away from the joy and horror of our submerging world.

Genres: Short Stories, Canada

208 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2017

About the author

David Huebert is a Canadian writer of fiction, poetry, and critical prose whose work has won the CBC Short Story Prize, the Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize, and the Walrus Poetry Prize, among other awards. His debut short fiction collection, Peninsula Sinking (Biblioasis 2017) won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, was runner up for the Danuta Gleed Award, and was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize.

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good.
Another book, please!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great energy, great images and overall great stories - all of them prominently featuring non-human animals, and their interactions with humans, in some cases tackling complex ethical dilemmas with considerable insight. "Limousines" was particularly good, one of my favourite short stories.

[Philip Glennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to ask anything more of Huebert's writing. His stories are filled with pathos, humour, and imagistic mastery. It is rare to see a writer with such an ambitious style of prose come across so naturally. This book was an absolute joy to read. Lovers of short stories and stunning prose take notice!

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In David Huebert’s inaugural collection of short stories, we encounter a variety of characters standing on the edge of lives in the process of transformation. Huebert writes emotion like a raw wound—throbbing and bloody. With astounding and sometimes alarming ease, he peels back his characters’ protective carapace to reveal the naked, trembling flesh beneath. The CBC Short Story Prize winning “Enigma,” which opens the volume, is a powerful case in point. In this story the young narrator is facing the imminent loss of her beloved horse. The animal is lame, the situation is only going to worsen, and the narrator’s love is not strong enough to save either of them. In “Sitzpinkler,” Miles is heading out to sea on a submarine for 105 days, one of a crew of 58; the assignment: to defend the sovereignty of Canada’s 200-mile offshore limit. Miles comes from a family of eccentrics (his pet name for his father is “the old Nazi” and his mother has recently succumbed to Botox poisoning). For Miles, emotional support has been hard to come by and life often takes the opportunity to remind him of his shortcomings. And though he worries about what could go wrong on a vessel submerged under tons of sea water, as any right-thinking individual would, it turns out that the greatest danger he faces is not the crushing pressure of the ocean, but the risk that while confined in close quarters he will accidentally let down his guard and reveal his foolish private self. Elsewhere we encounter a lonely and mistrustful prison guard with a hopeless crush on an inmate (“Maxi”), a pregnant woman who sneaks drinks and then struggles with her guilt (“Horse People”), and a young woman who, amidst a series of minor calamities, is struggling to find direction (“How Your Life”). The centrepiece of the collection is the 60-page title story, in which we witness three snapshot episodes in the life of Gavin that extend from his teenage years to young adulthood. Like Miles, Gavin’s life is coloured by regret and dominated by a fear that his baser instincts and the fact that he has no idea what it takes to live a decent and productive life will be exposed for all to see. This story is also a heartbreaking love song to Gavin’s (and the author’s) home province of Nova Scotia, but one that doesn’t hold back when it comes to enumerating the love object’s faults and failures. Overall, the collection is a triumph. In each story Huebert creates complex characters and a complete world for them to inhabit. His writing is urgent, uninhibited, packed with minute but relevant detail, and often very funny. Peninsula Sinking is a noteworthy debut that heralds the arrival of a singular literary voice, one that many of us will be eagerly awaiting to hear from again.

[Cynthia Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a start!!!
David Huebert's first collection of short stories! And, wow ....
Have only read it once and kind of gobbled it quickly as I tend to do with new-to-me compelling fiction.
It deserves a second reading before a review but am not certain I'll do that.
So will just say a few easy-to-say things: *one - this young new Canadian male writer creates stories that I found extraordinarily rich with emotion - extraordinary for me bc I have found too much Canadian fiction hard to access emotionally (what a gross generalization, eh?! 😝 probably says much more about my ability to read than it does about Canadian fiction writers!!! 😏).
*two - his unusual values, very current values - concern for the future of large coastal areas, in terms of longterm changes in the oceans expected to be caused by climate change; deep concern about the treatment of animals, the moral issues and responsibilities of having so much power over those that are domesticated, the ways we take our dominance for granted as a species, ways we can and often do abuse that power - all explored in ways that fascinate, are rich with relationship.
He does not pontificate or proselytize. He explores, swims, in the ocean of experience.
*three - his depth. Huebert does not skim the surface of anything! His writing is never shallow, trivial, petty.
Or if he does, again, it's like fish in the ocean that skim the surface when it's in their nature to do so.
He has an ability to combine meticulous detail, with effortless evolution of stories, with emotional depth.
The effect is like a warm afternoon in late summer, poplars leaves rustling loudly in the slow luxurious winds, the fragrances delicious ...
It is lush writing, imho! I could go on and on, gushing! Lol

[Catherine Duplessis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️

I was recommended this book by a book seller in Halifax. I wanted a souvenir from my trip when I visited my brother.

Unfortunately, the last two stories were my least favourite. So, I’m kind of left with a bad taste in my mouth.

The other ones were interesting. Not the kind of stories I usually read. But still good.

I’m going to lend it to my brother. I think he’s going to enjoy it more than I did.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Stories, all set in NS (except for sub that travels from Halifax to Arctic) and Horse People, set in Kenora ON with Nova Scotian protagonist

You're more apt to like this, I think, if you have a NS connection.

[Nathalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! I was very fascinated and I could not put it down! I will buy one for anyone on my Christmas list this year!

[Astrid]

Great writing. Superb. Also quirky, wacky, original.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant collection. Huebert has a way of telling stories from angles I’ve never considered. The titular story is utterly breathtaking in its construction. The shortest story, “Enigma” — winner of the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize — is a little piece of perfection.

Read more at the Redeblog.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, David's writing is brilliant. I'd sit with a tea and read a laxitive instruction insert written by him. This book is lush and potent. It is not a happy book and not one I'd read all in one sitting. There is much sadness in the stories, but they are touched of humor and are truly beautiful. At first I was a bit offput that a male author was putting himself so much in the minds of female protagonists but David does this with a sympathetic and gentle touch, so that it is absolutely authentic.