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Malagash
A precisely crafted, darkly humorous portrait of a family in mourning
Sunday’s father is dying of cancer. They’ve come home to Malagash, on the north shore of Nova Scotia, so he can die where he grew up. Her mother and her brother are both devastated. But devastated isn’t good enough. Devastated doesn’t fix anything. Sunday has a plan.
She’s started recording everything her father says. His boring stories. His stupid jokes. Everything. She’s recording every single “I love you” right alongside every “Could we turn the heat up in here?” It’s all important.
Because Sunday is writing a computer virus. A computer virus that will live secretly on the hard drives of millions of people all over the world. A computer virus that will think her father’s thoughts and say her father’s words. She has thousands of lines of code to write. Cryptography to understand. Exploits to test. She doesn’t have time to be sad. Her father is going to live forever.
Sunday’s father is dying of cancer. They’ve come home to Malagash, on the north shore of Nova Scotia, so he can die where he grew up. Her mother and her brother are both devastated. But devastated isn’t good enough. Devastated doesn’t fix anything. Sunday has a plan.
She’s started recording everything her father says. His boring stories. His stupid jokes. Everything. She’s recording every single “I love you” right alongside every “Could we turn the heat up in here?” It’s all important.
Because Sunday is writing a computer virus. A computer virus that will live secretly on the hard drives of millions of people all over the world. A computer virus that will think her father’s thoughts and say her father’s words. She has thousands of lines of code to write. Cryptography to understand. Exploits to test. She doesn’t have time to be sad. Her father is going to live forever.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 3, 2017
21 people are currently reading
2793 people want to read
About the author
Joey Comeau
42 books661 followersJoey Comeau is a Canadian writer. He is best known for his novels Lockpick Pornography and Overqualified, and as co-creator of the webcomic A Softer World (with Emily Horne).
Comeau currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. He has a degree in linguistics.
Comeau currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. He has a degree in linguistics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 295 reviews
November 8, 2017
Oh my gosh, Malagash, I'm all a-gush!
What is this book with the weird title, pretty cover, and lots of 5-star reviews? It's a small novel with big power, and I just loved it.
Malagash is a small town in Nova Scotia where a teenage girl named Sunday has found a strange and brilliant way to cope with her dad's imminent death. She records everything he says—to her and to everyone else. (I’m not going to say what she does after she records him, in case you’ve managed to avoid the blurb, which tells too much.)
This is a weird one, because if I turn to any page, I don’t find much. There’s simple language, a simple plot, simple dialogue. And the subject of dying isn’t any great shakes either: it’s not exactly a new, or a jazzy, or an upbeat topic.
So why, exactly, did I feel excited to give this one 5 stars? Because there’s something about this story that grabs you and doesn’t let you go. It reminds me that it’s all in the telling, and that the grabbing can be subtle and tricky. The book is full of emotion that soaked into my skin. There’s loneliness, sadness, fear, frustration, camaraderie, stiff upper lips, fake happiness, jokes, denial, fake acceptance, acceptance. But in fact, it’s the undercurrent of emotion between Sunday and the rest of her family that is vivid and nuanced and that pulled me in.
The Complaint Board is back in the shed because there is plenty of Joy in this Jar:
-Creative way of coping with a parent dying.
-First-person narration gives it a conversational yet confidential tone, plus it’s honest and fresh.
-Finely crafted story. No wasted words, no side trips. Compact and powerful.
-Emotionally rich.
-Vivid—felt like I was there with Sunday.
-Introspective.
-Not maudlin, clichéd, sentimental, or melodramatic.
-A nice family, with good dynamics. A lovable and smart main character, a cool sib, and loving parents.
-Wise and uplifting.
While her father lay dying, Sunday is observing and pondering not only her relationship with her father, but also his relationship with her mother and her brother, Simon. I loved the introspection. One of the cool things is that she realizes that each person in the family has a different relationship with her father. Even the exact same conversations have different tones, depending on whether it’s her or Simon. She also realizes she wouldn’t have learned this had she not been recording their conversations.
Here are Sunday’s own words about this:
“The way he sounds, talking to my little brother, is different from how he sounds when talking just to me. I feel certain that it means something different too, even though the words are the exact same. This particular softness in my father’s voice is meant only for Simon.
There are parts of my father that he shows only to Simon. Parts he shows only to my mother. What if I had never heard this? What if I had never realized this?”
That was an epiphany for me many years ago—the realization that my relationship with my parents, the way we perceived each other and interacted, was totally different from how my siblings perceived them and interacted. That made it easier for me to understand why some of us liked a parent and some of us didn’t, and why a parent might prefer one kid over another.
But back to this story. Dad’s death isolates each of them (since, ultimately, everyone is alone in their grief), but it also brings the family together. It was touching how Sunday gets to really see and know her little brother, and how she becomes close to him. Before her dad was dying, she hadn’t paid much attention to him.
I seem to need to repeat some of the contents of the Joy Jar: this story is unusual and rich, and it’s well crafted, with a main character that I just adored. Although this is a sad story with a dark subject matter, it’s strangely uplifting. I loved loved loved it! Another little secret gem!
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
Non-review stuff (permission to skip)
Sunday’s recording business got me thinking about a strange thing that happened to me a month ago. Two facts: My mother died five years ago and I am a gigantic pack rat. For some reason, my phone all of the sudden had rearranged my saved voice mail, moving the oldest up to the front. Curious, I decided to listen. OMG, suddenly I hear my mom’s voice! “Debbie, are you there? When are you coming to visit?”
Yep, there was my mother’s quick and jazzed-up demented voice, all mixed up and plaintive, with a hidden giggle, and she went on and on, which I loved. I could have listened for hours. This message, and the others (there were about six of them, sort of long) must have been at least 8 years old, before they took away her phone because of bad behavior. (In her dementia she would inadvertently make prank calls to, say, Alaska).
Most times, she thought my message was me talking, and that encouraged her to continue on in Chatty Cathy mode. She figured I was hearing her in real-time. Believe me, I was at attention. It was surreal, and in a good but eerie way. I only liked my mother once she lost her mind, so I was happy to hear her innocent, sweet voice. Who knew she had been living in my phone all this time, lounging there silently on my Comcast server?
So I get why Sunday wanted to save her dad’s voice, I really do. Looking at pictures is one thing, but to hear the voice of someone close to you, who is no longer there to talk to you, that feels different—so personal, so familiar, so immediate and eerie and soothing in an odd way. And of course it immediately stirs up memories, good and bad. I will keep her voice as long as Comcast lets me.
What is this book with the weird title, pretty cover, and lots of 5-star reviews? It's a small novel with big power, and I just loved it.
Malagash is a small town in Nova Scotia where a teenage girl named Sunday has found a strange and brilliant way to cope with her dad's imminent death. She records everything he says—to her and to everyone else. (I’m not going to say what she does after she records him, in case you’ve managed to avoid the blurb, which tells too much.)
This is a weird one, because if I turn to any page, I don’t find much. There’s simple language, a simple plot, simple dialogue. And the subject of dying isn’t any great shakes either: it’s not exactly a new, or a jazzy, or an upbeat topic.
So why, exactly, did I feel excited to give this one 5 stars? Because there’s something about this story that grabs you and doesn’t let you go. It reminds me that it’s all in the telling, and that the grabbing can be subtle and tricky. The book is full of emotion that soaked into my skin. There’s loneliness, sadness, fear, frustration, camaraderie, stiff upper lips, fake happiness, jokes, denial, fake acceptance, acceptance. But in fact, it’s the undercurrent of emotion between Sunday and the rest of her family that is vivid and nuanced and that pulled me in.
The Complaint Board is back in the shed because there is plenty of Joy in this Jar:
-Creative way of coping with a parent dying.
-First-person narration gives it a conversational yet confidential tone, plus it’s honest and fresh.
-Finely crafted story. No wasted words, no side trips. Compact and powerful.
-Emotionally rich.
-Vivid—felt like I was there with Sunday.
-Introspective.
-Not maudlin, clichéd, sentimental, or melodramatic.
-A nice family, with good dynamics. A lovable and smart main character, a cool sib, and loving parents.
-Wise and uplifting.
While her father lay dying, Sunday is observing and pondering not only her relationship with her father, but also his relationship with her mother and her brother, Simon. I loved the introspection. One of the cool things is that she realizes that each person in the family has a different relationship with her father. Even the exact same conversations have different tones, depending on whether it’s her or Simon. She also realizes she wouldn’t have learned this had she not been recording their conversations.
Here are Sunday’s own words about this:
“The way he sounds, talking to my little brother, is different from how he sounds when talking just to me. I feel certain that it means something different too, even though the words are the exact same. This particular softness in my father’s voice is meant only for Simon.
There are parts of my father that he shows only to Simon. Parts he shows only to my mother. What if I had never heard this? What if I had never realized this?”
That was an epiphany for me many years ago—the realization that my relationship with my parents, the way we perceived each other and interacted, was totally different from how my siblings perceived them and interacted. That made it easier for me to understand why some of us liked a parent and some of us didn’t, and why a parent might prefer one kid over another.
But back to this story. Dad’s death isolates each of them (since, ultimately, everyone is alone in their grief), but it also brings the family together. It was touching how Sunday gets to really see and know her little brother, and how she becomes close to him. Before her dad was dying, she hadn’t paid much attention to him.
I seem to need to repeat some of the contents of the Joy Jar: this story is unusual and rich, and it’s well crafted, with a main character that I just adored. Although this is a sad story with a dark subject matter, it’s strangely uplifting. I loved loved loved it! Another little secret gem!
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
Non-review stuff (permission to skip)
Sunday’s recording business got me thinking about a strange thing that happened to me a month ago. Two facts: My mother died five years ago and I am a gigantic pack rat. For some reason, my phone all of the sudden had rearranged my saved voice mail, moving the oldest up to the front. Curious, I decided to listen. OMG, suddenly I hear my mom’s voice! “Debbie, are you there? When are you coming to visit?”
Yep, there was my mother’s quick and jazzed-up demented voice, all mixed up and plaintive, with a hidden giggle, and she went on and on, which I loved. I could have listened for hours. This message, and the others (there were about six of them, sort of long) must have been at least 8 years old, before they took away her phone because of bad behavior. (In her dementia she would inadvertently make prank calls to, say, Alaska).
Most times, she thought my message was me talking, and that encouraged her to continue on in Chatty Cathy mode. She figured I was hearing her in real-time. Believe me, I was at attention. It was surreal, and in a good but eerie way. I only liked my mother once she lost her mind, so I was happy to hear her innocent, sweet voice. Who knew she had been living in my phone all this time, lounging there silently on my Comcast server?
So I get why Sunday wanted to save her dad’s voice, I really do. Looking at pictures is one thing, but to hear the voice of someone close to you, who is no longer there to talk to you, that feels different—so personal, so familiar, so immediate and eerie and soothing in an odd way. And of course it immediately stirs up memories, good and bad. I will keep her voice as long as Comcast lets me.
September 17, 2017
This beautiful book cover 'stopped' me --
Then I looked up 'Malagash', which is located in Nova Scotia. What I learned is that Malagash is the location of Canada's first rock salt mine, which operated from 1918 through 1959. After it closed, the main industries reverted to agriculture and fishing.
A one room school closed in 1982.... but there is a nondenominational Bible camp in Malagash.
The narrator of this story is a teenage girl named Sunday. She, her younger brother Simon, and her mother have come to stay in Malagash - in her father's childhood home -as the father wanted to be near his mother and his childhood memories. The father spent his final days in a local nearby hospital under hospice care.
The parents had a whole life living together in Malagash before Sunday and Simon were born, but the kids had never seen the town.
Sunday says, "I thought Malagash would be a small town, but it was not even that. One long road, twisting paved red loop around the north of Nova Scotia. There's a tractor sitting in a field. A dirt bike leaning up against a shed. We pass a pen of llamas, who look bored as hell. The Atlantic Ocean itself comes right up to drive along side of us. Then it slips away".
This family is close - inspiring - there wasn't a question for a second from either of the children - about moving away from their friends - their school. Wherever their dad wanted to be -it was "good riddance" to the rest of anything else.
It's too short of a book to share the project - plan that Sunday was preparing - and how it turns out - but it comes from love... and I highly recommended reading this book. It can be read in a couple of hours.
This is a tremendous tender story -about coming to grips with death is near - grief - loss - and love. There is sweetness, humor, and warmth. And my favorite part: This family is an exceptional *FAMILY UNIT*....always are each other's allies! In this day in age - a family like this inspires us all!!!
Thank you to Netgalley, ECW Press, and Joey Comeau
Then I looked up 'Malagash', which is located in Nova Scotia. What I learned is that Malagash is the location of Canada's first rock salt mine, which operated from 1918 through 1959. After it closed, the main industries reverted to agriculture and fishing.
A one room school closed in 1982.... but there is a nondenominational Bible camp in Malagash.
The narrator of this story is a teenage girl named Sunday. She, her younger brother Simon, and her mother have come to stay in Malagash - in her father's childhood home -as the father wanted to be near his mother and his childhood memories. The father spent his final days in a local nearby hospital under hospice care.
The parents had a whole life living together in Malagash before Sunday and Simon were born, but the kids had never seen the town.
Sunday says, "I thought Malagash would be a small town, but it was not even that. One long road, twisting paved red loop around the north of Nova Scotia. There's a tractor sitting in a field. A dirt bike leaning up against a shed. We pass a pen of llamas, who look bored as hell. The Atlantic Ocean itself comes right up to drive along side of us. Then it slips away".
This family is close - inspiring - there wasn't a question for a second from either of the children - about moving away from their friends - their school. Wherever their dad wanted to be -it was "good riddance" to the rest of anything else.
It's too short of a book to share the project - plan that Sunday was preparing - and how it turns out - but it comes from love... and I highly recommended reading this book. It can be read in a couple of hours.
This is a tremendous tender story -about coming to grips with death is near - grief - loss - and love. There is sweetness, humor, and warmth. And my favorite part: This family is an exceptional *FAMILY UNIT*....always are each other's allies! In this day in age - a family like this inspires us all!!!
Thank you to Netgalley, ECW Press, and Joey Comeau
January 21, 2023
”Smile an everlasting smile
A smile can bring you near to me”
--“Words”, song by The Bee Gees, lyrics by Maurice Ernest Gibb, Robin Hugh Gibb, Barry Alan Gibb
I’ve had this little book for a little over a week now, waiting for me. Little did I know what was waiting under that colourful cover. Of course, I’d read the blurb, was drawn in first by the cover, and then the story - a young girl, Sunday, whose father was dying, and so she begins to record as much of him as she can.
They’ve come to the home where his father grew up, where his first steps were taken, so shall there be his last.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19
Malagash is a scenic, seaside community on the north shore of Nova Scotia. A peaceful place, I would imagine. To her father, it is home, a place for family to gather.
”’A weight will lift,’ my father says.’A leaf will fall’ I am collecting his words.’Fresh white snow will blanket this whole sleepy town.’”
Little by little, she collects his words, his conversations. With her. With her brother, Simon. With her mother.
”At night, I play long nonsense loops of his voice to myself before I fall asleep, like a bedtime story. Like a lullaby.”
In the years after my father died, and my mother was still a three-hour drive each way (providing there wasn’t traffic), I went every weekend that I could manage it, almost every weekend. At first, because she was lost without him, and then later she needed more help. Every time I was there and the phone would ring, it was my father’s voice that would come on the answering machine. It took a while before I would stop bursting into tears every time I heard it, and then years later, my older brother decided to record his own message over it and I cried. I realized then I would never hear my father’s voice again. So this story really struck a personal note with me.
Beautifully written, this is a portrait of a family struggling to hang on to each other, struggling to let go of one and still hold tight to one another as they try to be strong.
“It’s only words, and words are all I have
To Take your heart away.”
--“Words”, song by The Bee Gees, lyrics by Maurice Ernest Gibb, Robin Hugh Gibb, Barry Alan Gibb
Recommended
Pub Date: 03 Oct 2017
Many thanks for the ARC provided by ECW Press
November 6, 2017
How do you take a subject that has been written about many times before. And make it new and fresh?
Read this book, and you will see why readers are responding so positively to just such a book. A father dying, asking to die in the place he was raised, Nova Scotia. So his family who loves him dearly, wanting to honor his last wishes, does just that. Father in hospital, mother and daughter, young son attempt to fill his last days with humor, and a great deal of love. His daughter who will miss him dearly goes even further. She has plans, ideas and a way to make her father's last words last forever.
A sadly but beautiful look at a family that is so filled with love, even during this trying and devastating time. The book is starkly written, short matter of fact paragraphs and yet they convey so much emotion. This is a family that could be torn apart by the death of a loved one but instead due to the mind of an amazing daughter have a chance to survive and even to thrive.
The cover is absolutely gorgeous, covers do attract, but sometimes what is within can disappoint. This one lives up to the the beauty of the cover by giving the readers a wonderful and heartfelt story.
ARC from Netgalley.
Read this book, and you will see why readers are responding so positively to just such a book. A father dying, asking to die in the place he was raised, Nova Scotia. So his family who loves him dearly, wanting to honor his last wishes, does just that. Father in hospital, mother and daughter, young son attempt to fill his last days with humor, and a great deal of love. His daughter who will miss him dearly goes even further. She has plans, ideas and a way to make her father's last words last forever.
A sadly but beautiful look at a family that is so filled with love, even during this trying and devastating time. The book is starkly written, short matter of fact paragraphs and yet they convey so much emotion. This is a family that could be torn apart by the death of a loved one but instead due to the mind of an amazing daughter have a chance to survive and even to thrive.
The cover is absolutely gorgeous, covers do attract, but sometimes what is within can disappoint. This one lives up to the the beauty of the cover by giving the readers a wonderful and heartfelt story.
ARC from Netgalley.
February 18, 2018
This small book is a treasure! A family returns to Malagash, Nova Scotia, where their parents grew up and spent their lives before their children were born. They return because the father, 39 years old, is dying of cancer. The father keeps his humor (though dark)
and his daughter Sunday figures out a way to keep his spirit with them forever.. she secretly records all conversations that she herself, her brother Simon, and her mother have with her father.
It’s too short of a book to say more, but it is a beautiful, intimate book that will touch your heart.
and his daughter Sunday figures out a way to keep his spirit with them forever.. she secretly records all conversations that she herself, her brother Simon, and her mother have with her father.
It’s too short of a book to say more, but it is a beautiful, intimate book that will touch your heart.
September 27, 2017
4+ Stars
"I don't want my father to die."
MALAGASH is a sad story about a 39 year old father close to death....a father with a dark sense of humor and a wonderful spirit....a father with a beloved daughter who finds a way to keep her dad alive forever giving her scared little waif of a brother and grieving mother a powerful gift.
200 pages of heartbreak, and a true original. (Skip the overview on this one - TMI)
Many thanks to ECW Press via NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 26, 2017
Wow! Malagash is a tiny perfect novel. Sunday recounts the last few days of her father's life. Sunday is a teenager, temporarily living with her grandmother, mother and brother in a village in Nova Scotia. They visit Sunday's father every day at the hospital, and Sunday records everything said on her phone. The snippets of dialogue become a lifeline for Sunday and her brother. It sounds sad -- and it is -- but there's way more to this very short novel than raw sadness. Comeau is brilliant at conveying so much about Sunday and her family through small nuanced interactions. Characters with heart and personality going through one of life's nastiest blows. Beautifully done. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
February 6, 2018
This tiny book packs a powerful punch. Reminiscent of A Monster Calls, this is an intimate look into the beautifully personal experience of grief. To say more about it would be doing a disservice to those yet to read it. 4 stars
April 23, 2018
An emotional and moving portrait of grief and a child finding a way to keep her father’s memory alive.
Sunday’s father is dying and she’s recording everything he says--the mundane to the marvelously witty--and will turn it into a computer virus ‘…a ghost story that computers tell one another in the dark.’ And it is in the dark humor that I found some of its most tender moments.
I’ve started a playlist of my dad’s dumb jokes about dying. There’s a light in my father’s voice when he jokes like this, that he knows will brighten the room.
Oh good. We all lived another day. I mean, some of us had to work harder at it than others, I’m just saying.
Dying isn’t even the worst part of all this. The worst part is that I’ll never get to be a cranky old lady in line at the grocery store.
To be honest, I feel kind of foolish for eating all those salads.
This is a small book about our big struggle with mortality, coming to terms with loss and how each of us handles grief in our own way. I highly recommend this beautiful little story.
Sunday’s father is dying and she’s recording everything he says--the mundane to the marvelously witty--and will turn it into a computer virus ‘…a ghost story that computers tell one another in the dark.’ And it is in the dark humor that I found some of its most tender moments.
I’ve started a playlist of my dad’s dumb jokes about dying. There’s a light in my father’s voice when he jokes like this, that he knows will brighten the room.
Oh good. We all lived another day. I mean, some of us had to work harder at it than others, I’m just saying.
Dying isn’t even the worst part of all this. The worst part is that I’ll never get to be a cranky old lady in line at the grocery store.
To be honest, I feel kind of foolish for eating all those salads.
This is a small book about our big struggle with mortality, coming to terms with loss and how each of us handles grief in our own way. I highly recommend this beautiful little story.
November 22, 2017
Many thanks to Esil and Debbie for bringing to my attention this small but powerful book.
It was quite something. It tugs at one's heartstrings. Big time.
It's impossible not to be touched by it. After all, we're all going to die, we all lost someone, not to mention, most of us fear death.
The writing was superb. The characterisations were exquisite.
I won't go over what it is about, as the blurb pretty much covers it.
I will just encourage you to read it.
Try not to finish it before bedtime, so you won't cry and get all stuffy and sad, like I did.
Highly recommended it
It was quite something. It tugs at one's heartstrings. Big time.
It's impossible not to be touched by it. After all, we're all going to die, we all lost someone, not to mention, most of us fear death.
The writing was superb. The characterisations were exquisite.
I won't go over what it is about, as the blurb pretty much covers it.
I will just encourage you to read it.
Try not to finish it before bedtime, so you won't cry and get all stuffy and sad, like I did.
Highly recommended it
September 27, 2017
Look at that cover! It was the sole attraction for me, the only reason I requested this book, I will now admit. I chose it even though the description made me a bit reluctant and I had no idea what a Malagash was. Turns out, Malagash is a small town in Nova Scotia to where one man has moved his family so he can finish out his life in the place he grew up. He's dying of cancer in a hospital. His wife and son and daughter visit him daily, as does his mother. The dad tells his silly jokes, sings songs, and tells them all that he loves them. His brother comes to make peace.
The setting of Malagash is important, but the family is moreso, because his daughter Sunday is recording all of his conversations with family on her phone. This way her father's voice and his unique personality will live on forever. So that not only will she and her family have access to these recordings, she plans to let them loose into the world as a computer virus, a good virus, she says, where her father's ghost will dwell.
It's a wonder of a book that just gets better the farther you progress. A sweet story of familial love, with a young adult feel to it since Sunday is the narrator. A thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a lovely experience.
The setting of Malagash is important, but the family is moreso, because his daughter Sunday is recording all of his conversations with family on her phone. This way her father's voice and his unique personality will live on forever. So that not only will she and her family have access to these recordings, she plans to let them loose into the world as a computer virus, a good virus, she says, where her father's ghost will dwell.
It's a wonder of a book that just gets better the farther you progress. A sweet story of familial love, with a young adult feel to it since Sunday is the narrator. A thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a lovely experience.
February 9, 2018
Maybe all death vigils and their aftermath are the same, no matter how different their details. And maybe you don’t even need to have had the experience of accompanying somebody you love (or don’t love) to their end to understand the seeming contradictions of feeling inherent to this experience. When it happens, you think it is unique—that no other person on the planet shares what you are going through. But this novel about a family doing the countdown to the father’s end proves that perhaps these feelings are coded into our individual and collective DNA.
This beautifully written, unique story about her father’s death, told by a young girl named Sunday who codes him forever into life, via a computer virus, evokes everybody’s experience.
Thanks to my Goodreader friends who recommended this exquisite little book.
This beautifully written, unique story about her father’s death, told by a young girl named Sunday who codes him forever into life, via a computer virus, evokes everybody’s experience.
Thanks to my Goodreader friends who recommended this exquisite little book.
April 4, 2018
Wow,-- small but mighty.
I need to spend more time thinking about this one. It's quiet and sneaks up on you and then slowly tears you apart. Less than 200 pages, Sunday creates a virus based on the end of her dad's life. She wants him to live forever captured within computers slowly corrupting the hard drives of unsuspecting victims.
The family handles this with as much grace as humanly possible given the circumstances. I appreciated the way the author merged two unlikely topics together to create something unique and unforgettable. I really enjoyed the smaller nuances between the side characters- small conversations recorded, intimate moments captured between a mother and a wife. Two siblings that come together and capture your heart.
I need to spend more time thinking about this one. It's quiet and sneaks up on you and then slowly tears you apart. Less than 200 pages, Sunday creates a virus based on the end of her dad's life. She wants him to live forever captured within computers slowly corrupting the hard drives of unsuspecting victims.
The family handles this with as much grace as humanly possible given the circumstances. I appreciated the way the author merged two unlikely topics together to create something unique and unforgettable. I really enjoyed the smaller nuances between the side characters- small conversations recorded, intimate moments captured between a mother and a wife. Two siblings that come together and capture your heart.
August 17, 2017
As soon as I saw this title offered on NetGalley, I just knew I had to read it. The place name alone cinched it. As I sit in my cottage on a warm though blustery day, I am just a short drive away from Malagash.
I began reading with no expectations whatsoever. I didn't have any knowledge of the author - I knew only that the book was set nearby.
Wow!
I was completely blown away!
"And if words mean something to you, if an idea moves you,
aren't you changed, just a little?"
The story is that of Sunday, a teenaged girl who has recently come to Malagash because her father is dying and he wanted to come 'home' to die in the place where he grew up. Sunday, her younger brother Simon (whom she calls "the waif"), and her mother, will stay with her grandmother in Malagash and visit her father in a care home in Tatamagouche.
"I thought Malagash would be a small town, but it is not even that. One long road, a twisting paved red loop around the north shore of Nova Scotia. There's a tractor sitting in a field. A dirt bike leaning up against a shed. We pass a pen of llamas, who look bored as hell. The Atlantic Ocean itself comes right up to drive along beside us. Then it slips away."
Sunday has brought three computers along with her on this journey. She was once suspended from school because she hacked into the school's database. Her intention now is to record her father's words so that he will always be here... and, she plans to create a computer virus that will make her father's words and voice spread throughout the world. In this way, she will make him live forever.
"I have to save as much of him as I can."
"I have my computers. We won't be here forever, I guess. Just for the rest of my father's life."
"My living father still has more to say. I want as many of his jokes and kindnesses to make it into the software as possible."
When Sunday's father, just months before his fortieth birthday, succumbs to his battle with cancer, the family is left bereft. Sunday and her young brother Simon roam the Malagash area on their bicycles - leaving their mother and grandmother to get on with mourning in their own way... They visit wharves, barns, and country lanes. Sunday discovers that she quite likes Simon's company after all - and they become closer than they were before.
"We are subject to no authority, my brother and I. We are free.
Governed only by what little sense we were born with."
"Visiting our Dad in the hospital gave our days structure.
Now all we have is the sky and red road and sandwiches every day at noon."
A different premise to be sure, but Sunday's story is one that will live in my heart forever. This is a novel of mourning and one family's eloquent way of coming to terms with unbearable loss. "Malagash" is a simple, beautifully written, heart-wrenching read and a fine example of well-crafted literary fiction.
Highly recommended!
I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from ECW Press via NetGalley.
I began reading with no expectations whatsoever. I didn't have any knowledge of the author - I knew only that the book was set nearby.
Wow!
I was completely blown away!
"And if words mean something to you, if an idea moves you,
aren't you changed, just a little?"
The story is that of Sunday, a teenaged girl who has recently come to Malagash because her father is dying and he wanted to come 'home' to die in the place where he grew up. Sunday, her younger brother Simon (whom she calls "the waif"), and her mother, will stay with her grandmother in Malagash and visit her father in a care home in Tatamagouche.
"I thought Malagash would be a small town, but it is not even that. One long road, a twisting paved red loop around the north shore of Nova Scotia. There's a tractor sitting in a field. A dirt bike leaning up against a shed. We pass a pen of llamas, who look bored as hell. The Atlantic Ocean itself comes right up to drive along beside us. Then it slips away."
Sunday has brought three computers along with her on this journey. She was once suspended from school because she hacked into the school's database. Her intention now is to record her father's words so that he will always be here... and, she plans to create a computer virus that will make her father's words and voice spread throughout the world. In this way, she will make him live forever.
"I have to save as much of him as I can."
"I have my computers. We won't be here forever, I guess. Just for the rest of my father's life."
"My living father still has more to say. I want as many of his jokes and kindnesses to make it into the software as possible."
When Sunday's father, just months before his fortieth birthday, succumbs to his battle with cancer, the family is left bereft. Sunday and her young brother Simon roam the Malagash area on their bicycles - leaving their mother and grandmother to get on with mourning in their own way... They visit wharves, barns, and country lanes. Sunday discovers that she quite likes Simon's company after all - and they become closer than they were before.
"We are subject to no authority, my brother and I. We are free.
Governed only by what little sense we were born with."
"Visiting our Dad in the hospital gave our days structure.
Now all we have is the sky and red road and sandwiches every day at noon."
A different premise to be sure, but Sunday's story is one that will live in my heart forever. This is a novel of mourning and one family's eloquent way of coming to terms with unbearable loss. "Malagash" is a simple, beautifully written, heart-wrenching read and a fine example of well-crafted literary fiction.
Highly recommended!
I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from ECW Press via NetGalley.
May 10, 2018
A beautiful, tender, and emotionally true story about a young girl coping with her father’s terminal illness and the measures she takes to preserve his memory. For me, the loveliest book in recent memory.
October 27, 2017
By the time I came to read this book I could remember why I'd requested it but could not recall what it was about nor did the title provide much of a clue. Malagash. It could have been about anything. I proceeded, as is my habit, without reading the blurb and was pleasantly surprised by the story that unfolded. As it turns out, Malagash is the name of a tiny town in Nova Scotia. The town Sunday's father had grown up in, a place he and his wife had lived, and the town he has chosen to spend his dying days surrounded by family.
I guess it's true to say this is a story about death, yet it wasn't morbid nor was it overly sentimental. This moving story was told from Sunday's perspective. We don't know her age but she's a young girl - mid teens perhaps - so her voice gave it a contemporary YA feeling. Make no mistake, Sunday does not want her dad to die. She relishes every last moment with her dad, and to this end she has surreptitiously captured hours of sound recordings of her Dad - alone, interacting with her, with her younger brother and with her mother, or all four of them together. Sunday has a very specific plan for her recordings. A plan which gives the story a distinctive twist, and yet despite her grand plan the recordings proved their value as a healing tool. Not only did they serve as a conversation starter between Sunday and her younger brother Simon, they also provided comfort to the grieving family after his passing - the sound of his voice a soothing balm. Through her transcripts of the recordings readers are privy to the depth of this family's love for each other, the joy they had shared in each others company.
Malagash was a delightfully quick and easy read and I feel very grateful to the author Joey Comeau, the publishers ECW Press and NetGalley for approving my request for this digital ARC. It was my pleasure to read Malagash and to provide an unbiased review.
I guess it's true to say this is a story about death, yet it wasn't morbid nor was it overly sentimental. This moving story was told from Sunday's perspective. We don't know her age but she's a young girl - mid teens perhaps - so her voice gave it a contemporary YA feeling. Make no mistake, Sunday does not want her dad to die. She relishes every last moment with her dad, and to this end she has surreptitiously captured hours of sound recordings of her Dad - alone, interacting with her, with her younger brother and with her mother, or all four of them together. Sunday has a very specific plan for her recordings. A plan which gives the story a distinctive twist, and yet despite her grand plan the recordings proved their value as a healing tool. Not only did they serve as a conversation starter between Sunday and her younger brother Simon, they also provided comfort to the grieving family after his passing - the sound of his voice a soothing balm. Through her transcripts of the recordings readers are privy to the depth of this family's love for each other, the joy they had shared in each others company.
Malagash was a delightfully quick and easy read and I feel very grateful to the author Joey Comeau, the publishers ECW Press and NetGalley for approving my request for this digital ARC. It was my pleasure to read Malagash and to provide an unbiased review.
February 6, 2018
4.0 STARS
This book is really a very long short story … the best short story I’ve read in ages! Sincere. Innocent. Heartwarming. Thought provoking. Remarkably profound in its simplicity. An exploration of hope, grief and love that openly invites the reader to step inside and feel!
The details of the family are scant but completely unnecessary to discern the emotions. Dad is dying of cancer and wants to be near his mother and childhood memories in Malagash when he dies. Sunday refers to her brother Simon as the waif. Sunday is proficient in writing code, a hacker. Both are angry and afraid … Dad will die. They don’t want him to die.
Sunday crafts a plan to keep Dad alive forever. She uses her phone to record his voice ... his conversations with her; all his interactions, often times unbeknownst to him; private conversations between him and Mom; brotherly conversations with Uncle Frank and Jonah. Sunday and Simon listen to the recordings over and over and over.
Dad.
The files are zipped, organized and categorized, carefully prepared for their launch, and written into a computer virus that will live deep in the hard drives of strangers around the world. Dad will live forever, a ghost living on in computers. Dad won’t die.
Dad would have been forty in December. Sunday and Simon are ready to launch the virus. Simon asks…
“Won’t he be lonely without us?”
The innocence of two young children, coping as best they can with death and grief in their own special way. Dad is gone. He’ll never hear the recordings. But maybe Mom will.
Outstanding! Looks can deceive ... this cute little book packs one heck of a punch; four brightly shining stars. Read it!
This book is really a very long short story … the best short story I’ve read in ages! Sincere. Innocent. Heartwarming. Thought provoking. Remarkably profound in its simplicity. An exploration of hope, grief and love that openly invites the reader to step inside and feel!
The details of the family are scant but completely unnecessary to discern the emotions. Dad is dying of cancer and wants to be near his mother and childhood memories in Malagash when he dies. Sunday refers to her brother Simon as the waif. Sunday is proficient in writing code, a hacker. Both are angry and afraid … Dad will die. They don’t want him to die.
Sunday crafts a plan to keep Dad alive forever. She uses her phone to record his voice ... his conversations with her; all his interactions, often times unbeknownst to him; private conversations between him and Mom; brotherly conversations with Uncle Frank and Jonah. Sunday and Simon listen to the recordings over and over and over.
Dad.
The files are zipped, organized and categorized, carefully prepared for their launch, and written into a computer virus that will live deep in the hard drives of strangers around the world. Dad will live forever, a ghost living on in computers. Dad won’t die.
Dad would have been forty in December. Sunday and Simon are ready to launch the virus. Simon asks…
“Won’t he be lonely without us?”
The innocence of two young children, coping as best they can with death and grief in their own special way. Dad is gone. He’ll never hear the recordings. But maybe Mom will.
Outstanding! Looks can deceive ... this cute little book packs one heck of a punch; four brightly shining stars. Read it!
September 11, 2017
Having never heard of Malagash, I chose this book thinking it featured an Irish setting, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a small village on the northern tip of Nova Scotia. Sunday and her brother Simon are staying with their mother in their father's childhood home as their father, who chose to go "home," is living his final days in a local hospice. In today's world, this is a highly unusual family, one that loves each other deeply and without reservation, and father's impending death is faced with dread. All the stages of mourning are present here, but as it is told through Sunday's words, it is her point of view and pain we feel most.
Sunday is capturing her father's final days through his words, laughter, jokes and love with the intention of turning it into a ghost virus that will "infect" all the computers of the world. I am not tech savvy enough to understand the method whereby Sunday intends to employ this virus — to me the term computer virus holds a malevolent connotation, one that seeks to destroy data and cause disruption. The idea that she’s writing code for a benevolent virus escapes me. Her father’s laughter will become the mechanism that hides the virus from software designed to detect it.
To say I loved this book, its imagery, its connections, the characters, the family, is an understatement. There is humor, there are surprises. It is one of those books, slim in page length but rich in content, that will resonate for a long while.
Sunday is capturing her father's final days through his words, laughter, jokes and love with the intention of turning it into a ghost virus that will "infect" all the computers of the world. I am not tech savvy enough to understand the method whereby Sunday intends to employ this virus — to me the term computer virus holds a malevolent connotation, one that seeks to destroy data and cause disruption. The idea that she’s writing code for a benevolent virus escapes me. Her father’s laughter will become the mechanism that hides the virus from software designed to detect it.
To say I loved this book, its imagery, its connections, the characters, the family, is an understatement. There is humor, there are surprises. It is one of those books, slim in page length but rich in content, that will resonate for a long while.
December 16, 2017
Rating: 5* of five
An extraordinary and beautiful examination of grief, grieving, and the price we all pay for our ability to love. Its New Weird overtones...a computer virus isn't a father...made it more poignant to me.
My review is live now.
An extraordinary and beautiful examination of grief, grieving, and the price we all pay for our ability to love. Its New Weird overtones...a computer virus isn't a father...made it more poignant to me.
My review is live now.
Read
September 7, 2017Comeau has written wonderful books about zombies and summer camp blood baths, but his latest release is a touching, sweet novel about a teenage girl who records her dying father’s words in the hopes of giving him immortality by turning his words into a computer virus. It’s both funny and sad, and wholly original.
– Liberty
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Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: https://bookriot.com/listen/shows/all...
– Liberty
------------
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: https://bookriot.com/listen/shows/all...
June 14, 2018
"Malagash is a poignant snapshot of the wonder, joy, sorrow, and reckless daring of being alive. I love this cleverly tender and unforgettable heartbreak of a book and I know you will too." This quote by Courtney Summers (author of This Is Not a Test and All the Rage) summarizes my thoughts on MALAGASH by Joey Comeau.
The cover on MALAGASH is beautiful. This novel of 175 pages with short chapters can be quickly and easily read.
######################SPOILER ALERT#############################
Sunday's father is dying of cancer and the family moved to Malagash, on the north shore of Nova Scotia, so he can die where he grew up. Although Sunday is sharing a room with her younger brother in their grandmother's house, this does not stop her from carrying out her plan to make a computer virus that will say her father's words and keep him alive forever. 4 stars****
The cover on MALAGASH is beautiful. This novel of 175 pages with short chapters can be quickly and easily read.
######################SPOILER ALERT#############################
Sunday's father is dying of cancer and the family moved to Malagash, on the north shore of Nova Scotia, so he can die where he grew up. Although Sunday is sharing a room with her younger brother in their grandmother's house, this does not stop her from carrying out her plan to make a computer virus that will say her father's words and keep him alive forever. 4 stars****
April 3, 2018
This is a portrait of a family in mourning. Sunday's father is dying of cancer. She is recording his voice in order to create a computer virus so that he can live forever. But the book is so much more than that. It is about mourning, about family, about relationships.
I was moved by this book. It was written so well and it was so relate-able.
A few things that touched close to home:
" I thought I would write down my father's words, and he would live forever. But the more I record, the more I realize I am missing". "My father's story doesn't work if he's the only character".
The book makes one realize that someone's life is so much more than one person can ever know.
This was a beautiful read that had me in tears. 5/5 stars.
I was moved by this book. It was written so well and it was so relate-able.
A few things that touched close to home:
" I thought I would write down my father's words, and he would live forever. But the more I record, the more I realize I am missing". "My father's story doesn't work if he's the only character".
The book makes one realize that someone's life is so much more than one person can ever know.
This was a beautiful read that had me in tears. 5/5 stars.
February 25, 2018
I am collecting my father's words.
A sweet, short story about a father dying of cancer and a family trying to come to terms with it. I liked that it felt authentic, was a bit quirky and had me smiling even though the subject was so sad.
March 5, 2017
So beautiful it almost hurts.
November 2, 2024
Poignant story about a small family dealing with the death of the father/husband from cancer. At his request, they relocate to Nova Scotia, so he can die where he grew up. The father is in the hospital, and his wife, daughter, Sunday, and young son, Simon, visit him daily. He maintains his sense of humor and they do their best to show him love and support. It is told from Sunday’s perspective. She wants to keep her dad with her longer and decides to devise a computer program that will keep his words and spirit alive. The characters and their interactions are skillfully rendered. It is sad, subtle, and beautiful.
November 5, 2017
Malagash is thoughtful, earnest, honest, and unbearably, hopefully, sad. Teenaged Sunday's father is dying, not quite forty, and she, her mother, and her brother Simon have moved with him to the town of his youth so he can die with his mother and brother and the Nova Scotia landscape at hand. A story as much about death and living and what each one means as it is about mourning and digital necromancy. It is a light volume with spare prose, but we still come to know all six members of the family well, intimately, despite the almost sketchy nature of the novel. Joey Comeau understands mourning in a human, tender, and evocative way. It is an absolutely excoriating read, in the best way possible.
December 24, 2017
3.5 stars.
A lovely little gem of a book. it concerns the grief of a family facing the death of their beloved 39 year old father. it was his wish to have his wife, teenaged daughter and young son move back to the tiny settlement of Malagash, Nova Scotia, where he grew up. They are staying with the grandmother in her old house, each one coping with his imminent death in different ways. The father is at the stage of acceptance and yet displays much wit, wisdom, humour and love for his family. They visit him each day in a hospice setting in the nearby village of Tatamagouche. The story is poignant and sad, but never maudlin. It is beautifully written.
Sunday, his young daughter is coping secretly in her own way. She is recording everything her father says, working with three computers she brought with her. She sits alone in a closet striving to turn his words into a computer virus. As she works on the programming, she decides to share with her much younger brother who is struggling with his grief. She realizes how much she has ignored him during her teenaged years, and that he is very lonely, and is surprised how quickly he catches on to computer programming and that she enjoys his company.
"I tell him that it will be our father's ghost. His memory. His echo. I tell him that a virus need not do harm. That not all self-propagating code is malicious. Our father's virus would never delete files. Would never steal passwords or spy on the intimate moments of strangers. Would not spread like cancer, but like a story. Would slip through fibre optic cables to cross oceans, would pass like radio waves through the walls of houses that nobody even knows are haunted. A ghost story that computers tell one another in the dark."
Later she decides to include family conversations, and by playing these help in the slow healing process. My only wish that would be for the story to be longer. The characters were so well developed that would like to learn more of their conversations and thoughts.
A lovely little gem of a book. it concerns the grief of a family facing the death of their beloved 39 year old father. it was his wish to have his wife, teenaged daughter and young son move back to the tiny settlement of Malagash, Nova Scotia, where he grew up. They are staying with the grandmother in her old house, each one coping with his imminent death in different ways. The father is at the stage of acceptance and yet displays much wit, wisdom, humour and love for his family. They visit him each day in a hospice setting in the nearby village of Tatamagouche. The story is poignant and sad, but never maudlin. It is beautifully written.
Sunday, his young daughter is coping secretly in her own way. She is recording everything her father says, working with three computers she brought with her. She sits alone in a closet striving to turn his words into a computer virus. As she works on the programming, she decides to share with her much younger brother who is struggling with his grief. She realizes how much she has ignored him during her teenaged years, and that he is very lonely, and is surprised how quickly he catches on to computer programming and that she enjoys his company.
"I tell him that it will be our father's ghost. His memory. His echo. I tell him that a virus need not do harm. That not all self-propagating code is malicious. Our father's virus would never delete files. Would never steal passwords or spy on the intimate moments of strangers. Would not spread like cancer, but like a story. Would slip through fibre optic cables to cross oceans, would pass like radio waves through the walls of houses that nobody even knows are haunted. A ghost story that computers tell one another in the dark."
Later she decides to include family conversations, and by playing these help in the slow healing process. My only wish that would be for the story to be longer. The characters were so well developed that would like to learn more of their conversations and thoughts.
April 6, 2018
Sunday’s father wanted to return to Malagash, Nova Scotia, to die. His wife, daughter, Sunday, and son, Simon visit him every day in the hospital. His brother Frank and Frank’s husband, Jonah also come to visit. All of the family are staying at Grandmother’s house.
Every day, Sunday records her father’s conversations, his jokes, and his laughs. She wants to put them into a computer virus that will live forever; a ghost of her father haunting emails and attachments, showing up in random places on a computer. She leaves her phone on to record private conversations between her father and mother, between her father and her brother, and her own conversations with her father. There’s quite a bit of mundane conversation and the thought that comes to me is that nothing is mundane. All these snippets and daily insights reveal the importance, the magnificence of everyday life.
In ‘Malagash’, Joey Comeau distills an uncommon beauty from the business of death. He writes:
“It feels generous, almost. Beauty and reassurances are not for ourselves. Of course death will come. And of course there is no good way to die. There is no peace. A weight will not lift. A leaf will not fall. But we can pretend.”
One of my favorite lines in the book,
“And if words mean something to you, if an idea moves you, aren’t you changed, just a little.”
When Sunday and Simon, at such a young age, are faced with the death of their father, they grapple with ways to confront their feelings. Sunday’s recordings remind me of the fireman’s last call at a traditional firefighter’s funeral, because both make you stop and think, even if just for a moment. The call comes into the fire station over the two way radio, calling the fireman out to fight his last fire. Sunday records her father’s voice saying, “Good-bye forever.” Her father’s voice becomes an echo, his ghost. I think we all want to be remembered when we are gone. Sunday’s recordings becomes a way to honor her father’s life and death; a way to remember his life and his connections to his loved ones.
Every day, Sunday records her father’s conversations, his jokes, and his laughs. She wants to put them into a computer virus that will live forever; a ghost of her father haunting emails and attachments, showing up in random places on a computer. She leaves her phone on to record private conversations between her father and mother, between her father and her brother, and her own conversations with her father. There’s quite a bit of mundane conversation and the thought that comes to me is that nothing is mundane. All these snippets and daily insights reveal the importance, the magnificence of everyday life.
In ‘Malagash’, Joey Comeau distills an uncommon beauty from the business of death. He writes:
“It feels generous, almost. Beauty and reassurances are not for ourselves. Of course death will come. And of course there is no good way to die. There is no peace. A weight will not lift. A leaf will not fall. But we can pretend.”
One of my favorite lines in the book,
“And if words mean something to you, if an idea moves you, aren’t you changed, just a little.”
When Sunday and Simon, at such a young age, are faced with the death of their father, they grapple with ways to confront their feelings. Sunday’s recordings remind me of the fireman’s last call at a traditional firefighter’s funeral, because both make you stop and think, even if just for a moment. The call comes into the fire station over the two way radio, calling the fireman out to fight his last fire. Sunday records her father’s voice saying, “Good-bye forever.” Her father’s voice becomes an echo, his ghost. I think we all want to be remembered when we are gone. Sunday’s recordings becomes a way to honor her father’s life and death; a way to remember his life and his connections to his loved ones.
November 26, 2017
A touching, sometimes funny, and poetic glimpse into the reactions of a family coping with their father's/husband's death. The 39-year-old dad wants to die in Malagash, Nova Scotia where he grew up and the family - wife, teenage daughter, younger son - pack up and move in with grandmother, while the father is in the local hospital. The daughter wants to keep him alive by recording their every conversation. I kept wondering where this was going, if I would like it and then boom!, it was over and it punched me in the gut. Insight and emotion in a very small package.
August 28, 2017
This book is a sort of minimalist wonder, with big feelings in a tiny package. You can read Malagash in under an hour, but the characters, the images, and the ideas stay with you. I stood in a subway station finishing it, tears in my eyes. A story about the death of a family member could easily be tired or maudlin, but Comeau avoids both these traps. Fresh, moving, and entirely memorable.
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