Waiting for Columbus

by Thomas Trofimuk

A man arrives at an insane asylum in contemporary Spain claiming to be the legendary navigator Christopher Columbus. Who he really is, and the events that led him to break with reality, lie at the center of this captivating, romantic, and stunningly written novel.

Found in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar, the mysterious man who calls himself Columbus appears to be just another delirious mental patient, until he begins to tell the “true” story of how he famously obtained three ships from Spanish royalty.

It's Nurse Consuela who listens to these fantastical tales of adventure and romance, and tries desperately to make sense of why this seemingly intelligent man has been locked up, and why no one has come to visit. As splintered fragments of the man beneath the façade reveal a charming yet guarded individual, Nurse Consuela can't avoid the inappropriate longings she begins to feel. Something terrible caused his break with reality and she can only listen and wait as Columbus spins his tale to the very end.

In the tradition of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Dogs of Babel , this unforgettable novel mines the darkest recesses of loss and the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit. It is an immensely satisfying novel that will introduce Thomas Trofimuk to readers who will want to hear his voice again and again.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canada, Mystery, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Historical

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

• As a writer, he’s published poetry, short-fiction, and novels.
• His first novel, The 52nd Poem, explores the remnants of a love affair as a man sends a poem a week to his lover over the period of a year. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
• A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and has received high praise from critics – including being named as one of the top 100 must read books for 2006 by the Globe & Mail.
• In 2009, Thomas’ third novel, Waiting for Columbus, burst onto the international stage, with a Canadian (McClelland & Stewart) and US (Knopf-Doubleday) release. In 2010, the book was released in the UK (Picador), and was published in Serbia, Brazil, Poland, China, and Quebec. The book was also released as an audio book. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club (UK) pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade.
• Waiting for Columbus has been optioned for film. Rumours are swirling right now about the possibility of Nicholas Cage playing “Columbus” in the movie.
• This is All a Lie, his fourth (published) novel, gathered stellar reviews across Canada, including a starred review in Quill & Quire, and being named as a top 100 book of 2017 in the National Post.
• Trofimuk is a founding father of Edmonton’s Raving Poets movement, which was an open-stage poetry event held in a bar, with the poets backed up by the Raving Poets Band. He played piano (badly but with gusto) in the Raving Poets band.
• He is a frequent teacher at YouthWrite (http://www.youthwrite.com/), a camp for kids who love to write, and he sits on the board of the YouthWrite Society Canada.
• He also irregularly blogs on his website: “Writer, Gardener, Failed Buddhist.” (www.thomastrofimuk.com)
• Trofimuk has recently taken up kayaking. He loves maps, and charts. He really likes new sheets. He’s a huge fan of single malt whisky. He has been known to smoke cigars. If you offer him wine, he’ll very likely accept.
• He was a “dance dad,” which means he knows more about dance than he ever thought he’d know, and he did a lot of driving back and forth from Shelly’s Dance Studio. He has grown to love dance, and in fact, there’s a dancer in the latest novel, called The Elephant on Karlův Bridge.
• The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, set in Prague, Czech Republic, in which a five-ton African elephant is one of the main characters, is slated for an August 15, 2022 release.

Here's a short and sweet version:

Thomas Trofimuk is a writer of poetry and fiction. He’s published in literary magazines across the country, and on CBC radio. His first novel, The 52nd Poem won the George Bugnet Novel of the Year Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2003 Alberta Book Awards. His second novel, the critically acclaimed Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was named as one of the Globe and Mail’s top 100 must-read books for 2006. His third book, Waiting for Columbus, was released in August 2009 in the US, Canada, the UK, Serbia, Poland, Brazil, China and Quebec. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade. A fourth novel, This is All a Lie was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. The Elephant on Karlův Bridge is set to be released Aug, 2022. Thomas writes on a regular basis for his own website; “writer, gardener, failed Buddhist” at www.thomastrofimuk.com. He lives (and writes) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Reviews

[Thomas Trofimuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, of course, I think it's brilliant. I wrote it.

[caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The star system is very odd. One compares apples and oranges and they both can have the same amount of stars, though they satisfy completely different needs. So to clarify my grading, I am going to employee meals - some books are snacks, others appetizers. There are amuse bouches and there are entrees and desserts. There are lunch entrees and dinner entrees. Janet Evanovich is a snack. Sue Grafton an appetizer. Thomas Trofimuk's Waiting for Columbus is an entree. An entree at a 4 star restaurant, paired with the perfect wine. Each bite is delicious, tantalizing and satisfying; yet still leaves you wanting more. Wonderful prose, an intriguing story. Even as you discover where it is going you yearn for each bite.

In the 21st century a man washes up on shore with the absolute knowledge that he is 15th century navigator Christopher Columbus. He is sent to a mental hospital where he is put under the care of Nurse Consuela, who listens to his stories and guides him back to reality. Through a series of tales, he tells his and Columbus's stories, gradually coming to terms with the truth that shattered him into his beautiful illusion.

Trofimuk's prose is effortless and his story beguiling.

[Sophie Narey (Bookreview- aholic) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author: Thomas Trofimuk
Published: 03/09/2010
Recommended for: fans of historical fiction/romance

When I started reading this book it immediately caught hold of my attention and just wouldn't let it go at all! This book was extremely addictive I just wouldn't put the book down. This is the first book that I have read by this author and it really showed how amazingly talented the writer is.
This book is set in an insane asylum (which is what first drew me into this book), where there is a man who is claiming that he is Christopher Colombus, and is taken care by a caring nurse called Consuela. It is a very intriguing book to read and it is very easy to get wrapped upto it as you hear 'Christoper Colombus' telling his life story, you look forward to reading more of what he believes is happening in his life. It shows a nice caring side of the nurses that worked in insane asylum at that time.
All of the characters are very vividly described and they make the book all that bit more exciting and realistic. The author has done an amazing job in describing the characters, the setting in such a way that it makes the reader feel like you are actually there. I also loved how the author manages to tie up all of the loose ends so that it nicely finishes the book. The character of Consuela was my favourite one I found her easy to get along with and easy to read about, she was a character that could easily have been a real people, her feelings toward 'Christopher Colombus' are totally believable and relatable. A truly excellent read and one that I could happily read over and over again without getting tired of it.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

TRITE!

Can you imagine One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest meeting Mills and Boon? Well, it happened in this book. This terrible, mawkish sentimental story is set in an insane asylum where the nurse falls in love with the patient, who, if he wasn't insane, you would have to conclude is the most extravagant bullshitter on the face of the earth.

I blame the author. It is basically cheating to put a large part of the story into the mouth of a character who is insane because then you can abdicate all responsibility for the fact that it doesn't make any sense. It is further cheating to abandon any notion of 'point of view' so that the character telling the story - about himself - is also telling you things that he could not possibly know - like what other characters are thinking. Furthermore, it is ridiculous to suggest that a SPANISH doctor could not work out (from his accent alone) that his patient is CANADIAN. It is ridiculous to suggest that a female nurse would be swimming naked while her patient watched. It is ridiculous to suggest that a psychiatric nurse would be so baffled by all the patient's mumbo-jumbo that she begins to attribute some sort of magical powers to him. I mean, how did he manage to get Federica to make him a cup of coffee every day? Wow. Spooky.

Please, I beg you, don't read this book if you know ANYTHING about psychiatry. Or literature. Or, for that matter, reality. Because you will probably hate this book as much as I did.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Description from Shelfari: A man arrives at an insane asylum in contemporary Spain claiming to be the legendary navigator Christopher Columbus. Who he really is, and the events that led him to break with reality, lie at the center of this novel. Found in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar, the mysterious man who calls himself Columbus appears to be just another delirious mental patient, until he begins to tell the “true” story of how he famously obtained three ships from Spanish royalty. It's Nurse Consuela who listens to these fantastical tales of adventure and romance and tries desperately to make sense of why this seemingly intelligent man has been locked up, and why no one has come to visit. As splintered fragments of the man beneath the facade reveal a charming yet guarded individual, Nurse Consuela can't avoid the inappropriate longings she begins to feel. Something terrible caused his break with reality, and she can only listen and wait as Columbus spins his tale to the very end.

My Thoughts

The closest analogy I can come up with to describe this book is watching a photograph develop in a darkroom. At first, you see nothing but a few shades of gray here and there. Then the borders come into focus. Then the full picture begins to fill in ... becoming clearer and clearer until you are looking at the fully formed photograph.

In this book, the "photograph" being developed is the man claiming to be Christopher Columbus. Of course, since it is 2004, we know he isn't the real Christopher Columbus. But who is he and why is he claiming to be Columbus? We join Nurse Consuela in listening to Columbus's fanciful and detailed accounts of his adventures. Yet his tales are filled with anachronisms that bring into focus, little by little, who this man really is in the present day and what happened to cause his break with reality.

Trofimuk does a brilliant job in creating the atmosphere and rhythm of Columbus's stories. You know how you read books and you can just visualize everything that is happening as if you are watching a movie? I felt like this throughout this book, and I'm not even sure how Trofimuk pulled this off. When I was reading, I just felt very present in the story, as if I was there watching it happen. So when Columbus is telling one his tales of his explorations and suddenly a cell phone rings in his story, it is jarring as if you were watching a movie set in the Middle Ages and suddenly a car drove by in the background.

I think this is the brilliance of the book. Like Nurse Consuela, you begin to fall in love a little bit with Columbus and his outsized personality and adventures. So when you are shockingly and repeatedly reminded that he is NOT Columbus and instead a man who has had a break with reality, you are jerked back into the real world. And as the book moves ever closer to revealing the man behind Columbus and why he took on this persona, you begin to mourn the loss of Columbus, just as Nurse Consuela must deal with her feelings of losing her patient as he begins to heal.

This was a beautifully written book that works its way under your skin. At its heart, this is a story of love, loss, grief, heartbreak, loneliness and how our minds cope with these emotions. It is a book meant to be read slowly and savored, and I suspect it will leave its mark on you like it did me. If you like literary fiction with a melancholy bent, this book is a must read.

[Zoran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel cheated by this novel. The question is—does the wonderfully touchy and tragic ending justify the long toil the story took us through, to reach the end? I was, actually, so very close never to reach it, because the first 350 pages made me so agitated, I wanted to leave the book unfinished on a few occasions. Even now, when I turned the last page, I’m still not sure if it was worth it.

At first I liked the idea of a mental patient who thinks he's Christopher Columbus, and tells the stories, mixing history and present time, to his nurse. However, as the book progresses, it doesn't go anywhere, the plot stalls, and Columbus' stories drag on, without sense. There are way too many of those confused story-episodes, unsorted and out of chronological, or any other logical order. On top of it, the nurse develops emotional attachment to Columbus, but that was explained in a very superficial and unbelievable way. There was no courting, or subtle changing of feelings from the care for a patient into something deeper. No, one day the good nurse realized that she’s in love. Snap. Just like that. For a reader who likes his books well done, this one was absolutely rare.

It also seems that all the female characters in the book get naked at some point, mostly without any particular reason other than, perhaps, to spice up a terribly bland story. There’s lust and sex. There’s author’s documented intention to describe a great romantic with absolute adoration of his women’s body, and, yes, the soul, too. Which begs the question whether the author ever experienced the kind of romance he was trying to attribute to this ‘Columbus,’ because if he did, he isn’t capable to translate it in writing. Rather, the romantic escapades in the book are half-baked, clumsy and neither detailed enough to be taken seriously, nor funny enough to be taken as comedy.

Two stars, only because of the ending.

[Natasa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was well written and the idea behind it was compelling. But I had a hard time getting into the book. Maybe it wasn’t what I was in the mood for or maybe it was just lacking something that I can’t quite put my finger on. 

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's another book that defies the star system for me. It's somewhere between a 4 "I really liked this and a 5, “it was awesome”. Early on, I wasn’t quite certain how I felt about this book. I found myself confused initially, perhaps because I was reading a few pages at a time. Over the weekend I was finally able to get down dirty and read!

I had first heard about Waiting for Columbus on a Booksonthenightstand podcast. Ann Kingman raved about it not only once but at least two other times that I recall. I respect Ann’s opinion so knew this would be on my list. But what really sealed the deal was reading a listener’s comments posted by Ann. Tanya talks about this book in a post titled A Story Too Good to Stay Buried in the Comments.

You can read the post at http://booksonthenightstand.com/2009/..., I’m also gong to copy it in its entirety here at the end of my comments. I really don’t want you to miss this one.

Simply put it is a novel about a psychiatric patient in a hospital in contemporary Spain who claims he is Christopher Columbus, and the nurse who listens to his stories in an attempt to understand him. But don't let the simplicity fool you. The tale winds back and forth in time and over continents and oceans like a cresting and sometimes crashing wave. This Columbus is not the Columbus of my school books. Here, he is a man with many desires, not only the quest for adventure and finding the new world but also a voracious lover of women. I felt like a voyeur listening in as he relates his story to Consulea, his nurse.

Be certain to set aside some time to get into it. It merits a few more pages than usual to get hooked. My sincere thanks to both Ann and Tanya for leading me to this book. It is one beautiful story.


A Story Too Good to Stay Buried in the Comments
By Ann Kingman

If you’ve ever blogged, you know that it can sometimes feel like a lot of work. I confess that there are many times when I’d rather be reading a book then blogging about reading a book. But then, every so often, I am reminded of the incredible community that has sprung up here, and I realize that I get so much from your participation that it could never really be just “work”.
I had an experience like that just recently. It happened in the comments of Josh Christie’s post Bring on the Tears. Tanya’s comments, and subsequent expansion on those comments, were so powerful that I had to pull them out and give them their own space.

In his post, Josh asked, “What book made you cry?”. Tanya, who works for an audiobook publisher, answered:

This year I read WAITING FOR COLUMBUS (by Thomas Trofimuk) which had such a powerful denouement that I broke down, as did my husband who narrated it (in fact, you can hear him break down on the recording. He wanted to go back and “fix” it, but it was such an honest reading that when he tried to “pull back�� it ended up sounded fake! So, the original reading stands…)
I feel like I’ve known Tanya for a long time, thanks to her interaction with us here at Books on the Nightstand, but I had no idea that her husband was an audiobook narrator, and had no inkling that he narrated this book that I loved so much. Of course, I needed to know more, so I asked Tanya to tell us the whole story.
Here it is:

“Last April you mentioned WAITING FOR COLUMBUS in a blog/podcast. That’s all you did, mention it, but for some reason I became obsessed with it. I literally couldn’t wait until August to read the book, but I had no way to legitimately, personally, request an Advance Reading Copy from the publisher, so… I asked my boss to look into getting a galley. I was shocked when he came back and told me that our company had acquired the audiobook rights for the book!

The manuscript came to Blackstone and I was so excited, but I was soon thwarted in my attempts to pre-read it! My husband, Grover Gardner, who is the studio director for the company, always vets the galleys in order to make casting choices. He got the first crack at Waiting For Columbus and after reading the first chapter, insisted that he himself was going to narrate! He pre-read the whole of the book and finished right before dinner one night. Fork midway between plate and mouth, he stopped, started crying and left the table. He walked the dog for an hour and a half. All because of Waiting For Columbus. Of all the books he has narrated, this had never happened before. When he came back from his “time-out” I suspiciously queried him as to whether the book was that maudlin. He shook his head and only said “You’ll see.”

I insisted on being the recording engineer for the book. We were in the booth. The first “land mine” hit and I was affected, but okay. The second land mine hit and I could barely hold it together. Grover, even though he had already read the book, fell apart again. It is not maudlin, but beautifully and powerfully written. The book has become a very personal experience for each of us and both of us.
Even now, months after we cut the master, I can quote certain passages and there is one passage in particular which still sends me into a paroxysm of emotion. The book had another impact on me in a much more general way: I now search out books written by poet-novelists. I’ve come to appreciate Ondaatje’s and Margaret Atwater’s word crafting in particular, but it was Thomas Trofimuk’s words that found their way to my heart first.

Anyway, that’s probably way more than you wanted to know, but there it is.
For those who may be interested in the audiobook, you can listen to a sample at the Blackstone Audiobooks page for the title.

Tanya, thank you so very much for sharing your story. It’s amazing, and moving, and I can’t wait to listen to the audio with your and Grover’s experience in mind.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I DNF'd this. Got well over halfway through and 90% of what I'd read was just the male character telling stories about the various women he slept with in a really creepy way, and I was supposed to believe it was these stories that made Consuela fall in love with him? Okay. And Consuela herself was completely one-dimensional and seemed like a female character that could only be written by a male author who doesn't know much about women.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the language in this book is quite poetic. The idea of a man so traumatised that he retreats into a fantasy of being Columbus is very interesting. Unfortunately I do not like the execution of the idea.

Niggles: 1) All that talk of women drove me insane. I understood it was going to lead up to some real-life girlfriend, or wife at some point, but that did not make those little stories less annoying, or more relevant. I felt I was wasting precious time reading those bits.
2) Consuela seemed rather flat to me. I was given a few statements about her here and there and that was it. From those titbits I really did not feel like I was getting to know her at all. This is what I got: nurse, divorced, sad love life, drinks too much, occasionally reads a book. Please do not tell me someone is evolving; show me.
3) What on earth was that Emile guy doing in the story? Yes, he found out who Columbus was. To me it seems, however, that this could have been solved in the story in a way that did not necessitate the introduction of yet another flat character.
4) The writer can not decide between soft and quite crude language when he talks about lovemaking. Perhaps this is supposed to symbolise the dichotomy of Columbus and the real man who thinks he is Columbus. I just found it irritating. I hate crude language, but this shuttling back and forth did nothing for me either.
5) Unfortunately, I could go on with my list of niggles. I won't, however.

A beautiful idea; a flawed execution. I hate to give this book only two stars. I feel it was on the brink of greatness and did not quite make it. I can't give it three stars. There were times when I struggled to keep on reading. I wanted to love this book, but it did not quite happen. I am very interested to see what the author's next book will be. Perhaps that will be one even I can love.

[Mike Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable novel. A violent, agitated man is brought to a mental institution in Seville claiming to be Christopher Columbus. Columbus begins to tell stories to one his nurses, Consuela. Stories about how he, Columbus, has been struggling to raise funds and get royal permission to set sail across the Western Sea to find a shorter route to Japan and the Indies. Yet his tales of the 15th century are rife with anachronisms such as stereos, cars, and phones. Consuela and Columbus's doctor begin to suspect that the stories are a way for Columbus to come to terms with whatever trauma has shattered his identity. But Consuela also finds herself being drawn to Columbus...



The novel alternates between the present-day narrative in the institution and Columbus's stories of the 15th century (there is also a sub-plot involving a French Interpol agent searching for a missing "person of interest"). Yet both types of scene are told in the present tense using the same third-person perspective and tone. There is a very lyrical, almost poetical rhythm to the prose that is quite soothing and seductive. The use of the present tense give the entire story a sense of timelessness. It is always now; there is no past and the future is unknown, waiting to be discovered. The tension slowly grows as Consuela waits for Columbus to finish his story, which may restore to him his true identity. Yet Consuela fears that she will lose the Columbus she has come to know, that he will become someone else.



This is a story about fear and hope, and about discovery and loss, and about love and life. Don't wait any longer; read it.

[Marti Bledsoe Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not very often I dedicate time to a book when I don't know what's happening in its pages. With this story, you don't get clarity until the last chapter, so you must trust the author to take you on the journey with absolutely no map or landmarks - ironic or fitting for a tale about a navigator?

I enjoyed the journey through a man's quest for his identity - he fervently believes himself to be Christopher Columbus but the story is set in modern times. He is an incredible storyteller and I kind of enjoyed trying to help the other characters (crusty, scarred investigator and sexy psychiatric nurse) piece together his true identity.

My disappointment was deep, however, with the ending. I won't give it away, but I felt like the author should have spent a bit more time on that since it was the grand payoff for our winding road together.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this book but once I did I was hooked onto every word. I found myself wanting to know more about this Christopher Columbus character and who he really is.

The novel was very well written and I loved the way the novel contained elements from both modern age Spain and the 15th century. However I felt that the book was all over the place and didn’t really feel the novel fitted into real life where it be in the mental asylum or modern day Spain.

I didn’t like the Interpol investigation I felt it didn’t really fit into the plot of the novel and I did feel the only reason it was there was to find out Christopher Columbus real identity.

Overall it was a well written novel but I just didn’t feel that certain elements of the plot fitted in with the novel.

This review was published on http://everybookhasasoul.wordpress.com

[Reader57 · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely marvelous story. A man washes up on the shore in Spain and is ultimately taken to an asylum as he believes he is Christopher Columbus. He is a great story teller and his assigned nurse, needy in her own way, finds his stories mesmerizing, though clearly they are confused as to time since he is telling them as being Columbus, but there are such things as ringing telephones in the stories. Meanwhile, an Interpol Agent is looking for a missing person, but we (the readers) don't really know why. Is he dangerous? The writer manages to entertain with this book's storyline while also entertaining with Columbus' stories. I highly recommend this one.

[Karl Goerz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love wine, coffee, women, travel, scents. I am a waiter who is sometimes not polite, but make up for it in efficiency. I have been to Montreal, and Spain. I have a wife and two daughters. I live in Edmonton, in fact I picked up this book at the Wee Book Inn on Whyte. So naturally I enjoyed this novel. I do see how some will love it and others will not, like a bottle of wine. Thank you Thomas Trofimuk.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 2 out of 5]

To set a novel about Christopher Columbus in a modern day mental institution is ambitious, as not only does it heighten awareness of the reality of mental confusion, it also gives an insight into the life of one of the most enigmatic of adventurers. When a man is found, alleging to be Christopher Columbus, we are led by the author into a world of delusion and mystery, which is bravely narrated in three separate story strands.
Whilst acknowledging that the book is intricately written, I didn’t feel any rapport with the main characters. I found the narrative confusing in places, so much so, I skipped pieces of the book in order to get to the end. This may be one of those stories made more interesting when read as part of a book group, as a personal read, the book just didn’t feed my imagination and left me uninspired.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book interesting, but difficult to get through. Everytime I sat down with the book, I found myself falling asleep. Even in the middle of the afternoon.

The premise: A man is brought to a Seville institute for the mentally ill. he is convinced that he is Christopher Columbus. As we uncover the terrible tragedy that pushed him to escape his modern-day life into the life of Christopher Columbus.

Consuela was an intriguing character, but she left me a bit empty. I didn't feel that I could really understand many of her motivations. Although, that said, her voice is pure and almost innocent--although her character is not.

[AM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I'd have ever picked this book up except for the intriguing review that Books on the Nightstand gave it. They made it sound a bit like that movie Don Juan Demarco with Johnny Depp and Charlton Heston. I decided I'd give it a try. I am very glad that I did. This is a wonderful story, part adventure, part romance, part tragedy. I didn't quite know what was going on, but I didn't mind being lead down the path the author had sketched out. This was a good story and beautifully written. I really recommend it. For me in was new and different. A fresh and beautifully story to clear the mind after too many mediocre books of late.

[Karen Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book from Books On The Nightstand and am so glad that I picked it up. It's been a long time since a book surprised or intrigued me as much as this one did. I'd love to learn more about the psychology behind people escaping trauma by assuming a new persona or identity. Interesting sensual details; aromas, music. I downloaded the music mentioned in the book and re-read certain passages while listening and was wowed by how it enhanced the reading experience. Beautifully written. Highly recommended.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had some mixed feelings about this book at first. It starts out with a lot of shifts and multiple viewpoints, and I found that a bit confusing. However, there's a lot of gorgeous, sensual writing and a lot of interesting historical detail in this book.

By the end of the book, I was captivated by the story, even though it took me a long time to get into it. I'm glad I stuck with it.

This just won the City of Edmonton book prize!

[James Marinero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was somewhat reminscent of Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell), but with the rational explanation becoming clear towards the end. Definitely not science fiction.

A fascinating construction, with some historical context. There were plenty of LOL moments for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - especially as I am acquainted with some of the areas of Spain in the story. Not a page-turning story - this type of book never is, but plenty to keep me interested. Just a shade below 4*.

[Joe McGonigle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last 50 or so pages elevate this from a 1 to a 2. Pish otherwise.

[Karen Stock · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am 1/2 way throguh the book and find it difficult to read. it appears to be lots of eloquence and no story, thus far. It started off really good, but now......YAWN! the reveiws i have read make it appear like ti is a great book. I may try it again. I am going to a book club on the book as well so will see what others say

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was slow to start off with but got better as the storyline continued, felt however the emile character could be explored more, but on the whole enjoyed the read and the surreal storylines and felt the ending was very good

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading it but the middke zone was the best space in it fir me. A meditation more than a narrative. Beautiful language and rich personality profiles with clever magic realism portrayed as madness.

[Maija · Rating 1 out of 5]

huge disappointment. i should start to pick up books not only by their beautiful covers.

[Laura Frey (Reading in Bed) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Close to four stars, but didn't quite come together for me. Read this book? Chat about it may 26 @8pm, #yegbookclub!

[Kara Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last month I reviewed Galileo's Dream, in which I waxed philosophical about the attraction of certain historical individuals. Like Galileo, Christopher Columbus is another giant who captures our imaginations. Although he did not "discover" North America, Columbus did spearhead expeditions that brought the utility of North America to the attention of European powers. And the rest is, as they say, history. Columbus helped to change the world, but what we know about Columbus the person is not always clear. Unlike Galileo's Dream, Waiting for Columbus presents not a historical figure but a personality based on facts known about Columbus' life. A history professor who undergoes a traumatic event adopts the identity of Columbus. His intriguing story contains the clues needed to unlock his real identity.

Waiting for Columbus shares a lot in common with a mystery. The main characters (even Columbus, although he would deny it at first) are all fixated on discovering Columbus' true identity. There is even an Interpol investigator on the trail of a missing man, and his search eventually leads him to Columbus. Yet make no mistake: this is not a mystery. It is instead a romance, in the sweeping, historical sense of the word.

Columbus repeats throughout the book, "Trust the teller, not the tale." This refers to the shifting nature of his narrative's landscape. Mixed in with references to 15th-century Spain are anachronisms like laptops, handguns, telephones, and Starbucks. Actually, I enjoyed these anachronisms more than I expected: they made me wonder what historical events would be like if we transposed the people to a modern day setting. I love it when books push me down a tangent.

But I digress. Columbus is an unreliable narrator, and we must follow Consuela as she tries to puzzle out some sort of meaning from his stories. When he asks us to trust him, if not his story, Columbus means that his stories might not be accurate, but what he is saying with the stories is important to his state of mind. As Emile discovers, some of the characters and locations in Columbus' story are real people and places he visited prior to arriving at the institute. Others, as Balderas deduces, are composites of several people or fragments of a single person. Trofimuk nicely balances what we learn about Columbus from his story with what we learn from Consuela and Emile's private investigations. Again, this is not a mystery, but it has elements of mystery to it.

Like Consuela, I couldn't help but fall a little in love with "Columbus." Trofimuk's portrayal of Columbus the historical figure is indubitably sympathetic, but he can get away with this because it's precisely not a historical work; rather, this Columbus is one man's appropriation of the Columbus mythos, which he then revises to fit his own psychology. The Columbus we see is the brilliant dreamer, as passionate about discovery as he is about women, driven to explore and find a western route to India and China. We feel the blow that is every setback, every delay, every naysayer. And parts of the Columbus mythos that are not generally considered fact—such as the misconception that Columbus was some sort of revolutionary for thinking the Earth round—suddenly become important, symbolic.

This marriage of symbolism and history says a lot about storytelling, and that is the principle attraction of Waiting for Columbus. Trofimuk consciously and deliberately plays with metaphor and character in a transparent manner. One of my favourite elements of the story is the unconsummated love between Columbus and Isabella. It reminded me of a short story I read back in my first university English course: "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship (Santa Fe, A. D. 1492)," by Salman Rushdie. That story was my first exposure to Rushdie and impressed me enough to seek out more of his work. It was also a very postmodern narrative, with different perspectives and a style that is almost verse instead of prose. In both cases, Isabella's love for Columbus plays a pivotal role in getting him funding and ships. "I need to put an ocean between this queen and that foolish navigator. I needed to stop this lust in me. It was the only way," Isabella says in Waiting for Columbus. And in "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella," Columbus dreams,

Yes! She knows it now! She must must must give him the money, the ships, anything, and he must must must carry her flag and her favour beyond the end of the end of the earth, into exaltation and immortality, linking her to him for ever with bonds far harder to dissolve than those of any mortal love, the harsh and deifying ties of history.

Both stories play with the Columbus mythos in a way that highlights how we view and romanticize history and historical figures. Regardless of the true nature of their relationship, history has inexorably linked Columbus and Isabella, just as he dreams she desires in Rushdie's story. We will never know whether she does this out of love, as Waiting for Columbus depicts, or simple recognition of the advantages a successful expedition would bring to Spain. But really, it is better that way, is it not? We like the ambiguity, the ability to envision different reasons for history.

It's these moments of playful storytelling that catch Waiting for Columbus at its best. Trofimuk infuses the book with the atmosphere of a lazy day in August. The sky is always tinged with the orange of sunset, and there's plenty of wine to go around . . . that is how reading this book feels. He has a great capacity for description; of particular note is his attention to the sense of smell. Writers often neglect smell, either using it only sparsely or when it's pertinent to the plot or just forgetting it entirely. So I like when an author like Trofimuk comes along and makes smell a seamless part of the scene. It really does add another dimension of sense to the story.

Also, I appreciate the positive portrayal of a psychiatric institution. So much fiction involving institutions focuses on the negative, on the abuse by other patients and staff, on the ineffective or misguided treatments. There's no doubt such problems exist and should be written about, whether in fiction or non-fiction. But I like seeing the other side too, the positive, successful side. In the beginning of Waiting for Columbus, the director of the institute is Dr. Fuentes. He is the stereotypical disinterested psychiatrist who has no time for indulging Columbus' stories. However, halfway through the book Fuentes gets written off, and Trofimuk introduces the more personable and sympathetic Dr. Balderas, as if to say, "That's enough of that: here's how we'll do things from now on." There is never any doubt that this man only thinks he is Columbus; there is no hint of a plot or conspiracy on the part of the institute. And this certainty gives Trofimuk the freedom to tell the story of "Columbus" however he wants.

I cannot specify when I became immersed in this story. At first I had trouble reading more than a chapter or two at a time; it was interesting but not engrossing. At some point, however, the story clicked, and I needed to learn what happened to Columbus. The ending, alas, did not live up to my sudden increase in expectation. After waiting so long to learn about "Columbus'" identity and watch him recover, the book tails off, finishing the story very abruptly. We get no coda that tells us what happens to Consuela or to Emile, and Trofimuk speeds through an overview of how "Columbus" reintegrates with his new self. It is not a disaster, just a discordant note in the symphony.

Waiting for Columbus surprised me, because I did not think I would like it quite as much as I did. I picked it off the New Books shelf at my library on a whim. What I thought would be an OK story about a patient in a mental institution turned out to be a complex, poetic exploration of story and history. It is a wonderful tale of a Christopher Columbus who never was.

[Michelle F · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Emile sits up straight. He nods his encouragement at the bartender who had put down a copy of Don Quixote when Emile came in. If that's not a sign from God that this is some sort of idealistic, absurd adventure, Emile thinks, I don't know what is."

A man is brought to a mental institution in Spain, and identifies himself as Christopher Columbus. The story, though presented as the telling (from his own mouth) of how he, the intrepid adventurer, aquired the ships for his great adventure towards the edge of the world, is the mystery of who this man really is and how he came to be at the facility, teetering on the edge of sanity.

There are three characters and three journeys we follow in Waiting For Columbus. In addition to Columbus we join Consuela, the nurse who has been chosen to hear Columbus' story, and Interpol Agent Emile, who is searching for Columbus, following his erratic path around Spain prior to arriving at the Institute.

Each of these journeys is symbolic, for each character, of an overarching quest to aquire something in their own lives; to "adventure" past some tragedy or disappointment to the greener land on the other side of the ocean.

I admit I circled around the first few chapters like a cat staking out a sunbeam, uncertain how comfortably I'd be able to settle in. There is an atmosphere of despondency in this book - the searchers don't necessarily seem to want to find what they are looking for, or even to acknowledge what it is they are journeying away from. It is actually a very real-life feeling, and perhaps that is why I don't enjoy to immerse myself in it.

But the language is beautiful and there is a slow burn sensuality that carries one forward until the mystery of the story takes hold. I did indeed settle in, and once there I was compelled to continue, to follow the plots as they were charted and find out what happens when the story inevitably discovers the unknown.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story that held my attention from start to finish. A man is pulled from the Strait of Gibraltar claiming to be Christopher Columbus & he needs to telephone Queen Isabella to find out where his ships are! Over the next several years, bits & pieces of his story is told to his psychiatrist’s nurse & with the help of the doctor & an odd phone call from Interpol, the pieces start to make sense & Christopher starts his journey back from the 15th century to present day. One of the best lines: “Life ends but love never does.”