The Road to Appledore: Or How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place

by Tom Wayman

Overview

Acclaimed author Tom Wayman’s account of his shift from urban to rural.

The recent pandemic accelerated an existing trend among urbanites to move to the country. Yet to quote from a 2022 Globe and Mail article, “People from cities don’t always realize what they’re getting into.”

For anyone setting out in that direction, or dreaming of doing so, Tom Wayman’s The Road to Appledore: Or How How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place is rewarding reading. The book follows Wayman from Vancouver to southeastern BC’s Slocan Valley, deep in the Selkirk Mountains, and presents with his characteristic humor and philosophical insight his ensuing major shifts of perspective and knowledge. Mishaps, misadventures and moments of delight and wonder abound in Wayman’s prose reflections on his decades of living immersed in nature and the contemporary rural—from having to deal with a bear cub in his kitchen, to engaging in a vigilante action to protect a community water system, to the quiet satisfaction of growing his own food and flowers.

Wayman depicts the rural southwest of Canada in intimate detail, transporting readers alongside him.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781990776632
Publisher:	Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Publication date:	10/15/2024
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Tom Wayman’s prolific literary career includes writing more than twenty poetry collections, three collections of critical and cultural essays, three books of short fiction and a novel, as well as editing six poetry anthologies. He received British Columbia’s 2022 George Woodcock Award for Lifetime Achievement in the literary arts. In 2015, he was named a Vancouver Literary Landmark, with a plaque on the city’s Commercial Drive commemorating his championing of people writing for themselves about their daily employment. His own work life involved a range of blue- and white-collar jobs across North America, including teaching in both alternative and mainstream post-secondary institutions. He won the Western Canada Jewish Book Awards prize for fiction in 2016 (for the short story collection, The Shadows We Mistake for Love) and for poetry in 2023 (for Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back: Poems for a Dark Time). Wayman lives in Winlaw, BC, and his website is www.tomwayman.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Wayman reflects on his move from the city to the country in this evocative memoir…sparkling prose…even contented city dwellers will take pleasure from this enchanting account." —Publishers Weekly

“There is a broad sweep to Wayman that someone has not unjustly compared to Walt Whitman. He is vigorous, protean in fancy, and more self-critical than most poets of his highly productive kind. Facility is his temptation, but it has rarely led him away from true feeling.” —George Woodcock

From the Publisher

There is a broad sweep to Wayman that someone has not unjustly compared to Walt Whitman. He is vigorous, protean in fancy, and more self-critical than most poets of his highly productive kind. Facility is his temptation, but it has rarely led him away from true feeling.”

George Woodcock