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Orphan Love
Winter is giving way to spring in Black Dew Seat, a rugged outpost buried in the backwoods of northern Ontario. The year is 1989, and Bozak is on the run, fleeing a buried body and an unthinkable betrayal.
She stumbles into Dave, a Native rocker with a dark past, a beat-up canoe, and an escape route to the Hudson River and New york City. But their journey to the new world becomes a dangerous game of the hunter and the hunted when Daves past catches up with him, and Bozaks thirst for revenge is quenched.
Weaving together the lonely landscape of northern Ontario with the man-made terrain of New York City, and heavy metal with punk-rock culture, Nadia Bozak has written a beautiful, dark, and wholly original love story of two subterranean souls, searching for identity and redemption.
Praise for Orphan Love:
A blunt and surly exploration of backwoods sex, violence and emotional disorder. Hard-edged misfits and outcasts in a tale that tempts you down unfamiliar paths. Nadia Bozak's sharp eye captures these lives with authenticity and undeniable power. -Kenneth J. Harvey, author of Inside
Orphan Love has all the scalding, fierce energy of a comet whizzing through the coldest dark. Bozaks characters are beaten up and brave and very, very much alive. Here is a coming of age story full of horror and hard-won hope. Here is the voice of a storyteller afraid of nothing, generous and wickedly bold. This novel burns bright. -Lisa Moore, author of Alligator
Engrossing As a whole and on its own terms, Orphan Love succeeds. -The Globe and Mail
What David Adams Richards has done for northern New Brunswick, [Nadia] Bozak has done for northern Ontario. Orphan Love on all fronts is a winner. Stripped down, tragic, terrifying and at times brutally funny, this book deserves a multitude of readers. -Edmonton Journal
Raw, gritty and profane. Orphan Love is unrelentingly well-written. -Calgary Herald
[Nadia] Bozak writes in the tradition of contemporary masters of cyclical violence like Russell Banks and Dennis Lahane. -Montreal Mirror
Lively and engaging. Orphan Love is like a punk song: gritty and coarse on the surface, but with an agenda intended to shake up social mores. -Quill & Quire
Sparkling with pistol-hot energy A wild, inventive debut, Orphan Love stars an angry, screwed-up 1989 female version of Holden Caulfield, tough on the outside but innocent at heart. What Bozak the author has done is to open a vein deep into the adolescent psyche. As much as she tries to shock, she successfully hits nerve after nerve. Their journey out of the heartbreaking North makes for extremely satisfying fiction. -Toronto Star
The ultimate road novel.an odyssey most unlike anything that you have ever read. Nadia Bozak is a born storyteller. -Owen Sound Times
She stumbles into Dave, a Native rocker with a dark past, a beat-up canoe, and an escape route to the Hudson River and New york City. But their journey to the new world becomes a dangerous game of the hunter and the hunted when Daves past catches up with him, and Bozaks thirst for revenge is quenched.
Weaving together the lonely landscape of northern Ontario with the man-made terrain of New York City, and heavy metal with punk-rock culture, Nadia Bozak has written a beautiful, dark, and wholly original love story of two subterranean souls, searching for identity and redemption.
Praise for Orphan Love:
A blunt and surly exploration of backwoods sex, violence and emotional disorder. Hard-edged misfits and outcasts in a tale that tempts you down unfamiliar paths. Nadia Bozak's sharp eye captures these lives with authenticity and undeniable power. -Kenneth J. Harvey, author of Inside
Orphan Love has all the scalding, fierce energy of a comet whizzing through the coldest dark. Bozaks characters are beaten up and brave and very, very much alive. Here is a coming of age story full of horror and hard-won hope. Here is the voice of a storyteller afraid of nothing, generous and wickedly bold. This novel burns bright. -Lisa Moore, author of Alligator
Engrossing As a whole and on its own terms, Orphan Love succeeds. -The Globe and Mail
What David Adams Richards has done for northern New Brunswick, [Nadia] Bozak has done for northern Ontario. Orphan Love on all fronts is a winner. Stripped down, tragic, terrifying and at times brutally funny, this book deserves a multitude of readers. -Edmonton Journal
Raw, gritty and profane. Orphan Love is unrelentingly well-written. -Calgary Herald
[Nadia] Bozak writes in the tradition of contemporary masters of cyclical violence like Russell Banks and Dennis Lahane. -Montreal Mirror
Lively and engaging. Orphan Love is like a punk song: gritty and coarse on the surface, but with an agenda intended to shake up social mores. -Quill & Quire
Sparkling with pistol-hot energy A wild, inventive debut, Orphan Love stars an angry, screwed-up 1989 female version of Holden Caulfield, tough on the outside but innocent at heart. What Bozak the author has done is to open a vein deep into the adolescent psyche. As much as she tries to shock, she successfully hits nerve after nerve. Their journey out of the heartbreaking North makes for extremely satisfying fiction. -Toronto Star
The ultimate road novel.an odyssey most unlike anything that you have ever read. Nadia Bozak is a born storyteller. -Owen Sound Times
- GenresFiction
307 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2007
35 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 2, 2014
I grew up in the 80s and this book resonated with me even though I'm a white city girl. It's a coming of age story that should resonate with other now middle aged Canadians too - especially ones that, like me, love the expanse of our country and the complicated relationships we have with each other, ourselves and our land.
I look forward to reading more of her work (of she writes more...?).
I look forward to reading more of her work (of she writes more...?).
January 16, 2026
I honestly did want to finish this book. Up until the time that I decided I wasn't enjoying it enough to keep going at this time. The style is a little bit too precious and literary for me to really love it. It didn't hold me tight although there are some redeeming qualities. Interesting plot, really interesting characters, obviously quality writing.
Unfortunately this is going on my unfinished list, perhaps to be revived at some later time, maybe if I have an upcoming really long airplane flight or uninterrupted beach vacation sometime.
Unfortunately this is going on my unfinished list, perhaps to be revived at some later time, maybe if I have an upcoming really long airplane flight or uninterrupted beach vacation sometime.
May 12, 2022
SNFU meets Canoe. Gross fingernails, creepy/hot sex scene.
July 2, 2014
There seems to be a swarm of coming-of-age novels coming to my attention lately dealing with the 1980s. The struggles of the social norms of that era were immense but not unique. And any novel that documents teenagers trying to grow up during that time should reflect not only a reader’s issues with that era but enlighten a reader to the issues of a person belonging to another group. That is what Nadia Bozak did for me in her novel Orphan Love.
http://wp.me/p46Ewj-JI
http://wp.me/p46Ewj-JI
February 28, 2015
Not my type of book. Had a hard time finishing it. Maybe too dark for me?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews