Hero

by Paul Butler

In a St. John's hospital in 1945, Elsa Evans keeps a furtive vigil over the deathbed of Abram Kean, the renowned sealing captain. Remembering her first husband and her two brothers killed in the trenches thirty years before, and another young friend, Noah, frozen on the ice during the sealing disaster of 1914, Elsa contemplates a hideous revenge. The shock of her own bitterness forces her to retrace part of her life which is interwoven with those of her former employers, Simon and Sarah Jenson. On the morning of July 1916, officer Lt. Simon Jenson, severely shell-shocked and demoralized after a year and a half in the trenches, fails in leadership, hanging behind his men as they march through into no-man's-land. When a figure emerges from the drifting smoke, he thrusts the blade of his bayonet forward not into the enemy but into the body of Charles Baxter, a comrade and the brother of his fiancée, Sarah. Surviving against the odds, and with his battlefield actions misinterpreted, Simon is feted as a hero. But when Simon returns from the war, Sarah finds him emotionally fragile and prone to violent rages- not even their young daughter Lucy can cheer him. Worse, their lives are soon overtaken by the shadow of blackmail, and Sarah and Elsa, Lucy's governess, are forced to reconsider everything they once believed about loyalty, valour, and responsibility.

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Paul Butler is the author of novels The Widow's Fire (In press, Inanna, 2017), The Good Doctor (2014), Titanic Ashes (2012), 1892 (2008), NaGeira (Pennywell Books, 2006), which appeared on one of the judge's (Donna Morrissey) Canada Reads shortlists, Easton's Gold (Brazen Books, 2005), Easton (Flanker Press, 2004), Stoker's Shadow (Flanker Press, 2003), short-listed for the 2004 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards, and The Surrogate Spirit, Jesperson Publishing (2000). The novels Easton, Easton's Gold and Nageira explore the apsects of the pre-colonial history of the New World. Butler has written for The Globe and Mail, The Beaver, Books in Canada, Atlantic Books Today and Canadian Geographic. He has contributed to CBC Radio regional and national. A graduate of Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre and screenwriter of the Archelon Films and Ontario Arts Council short film production, Solstice, Butler is a four-times winner (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008) in the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards.

Reviews

[Roy]

On the morning of July i , 1916 , Lieutenant Simon Jenson , shell-shocked and demoralized after a year and a half in the trenches , makes a life-altering mistake . But with his actions misinterpreted, he is celebrated as a hero . When Simon returns nfrom the war , his wife Sarah , and daughter , Lucy find him emotionally fragile and prone to violent rages . Caught up in her own rief and loss Elsa, the Jenson,s governess fron St John,s , is thrust into the middle of the family,s turmoil . Only when one of Simon,s fellow soldiers turns up and casts the shadow of the blackmail over them all does unexpected change force its way into their lives .