The Colony of Unrequited Dreams: A Novel-Fast Shipping

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A mystery and a love story spanning five decades, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscapeof Newfoundland.

In this widely acclaimed novel, Johnston has created two of themost memorable characters in recent fiction: Joey Smallwood, who claws his way upfrom poverty to become New Foundland’s first premier; and Sheilagh Fielding, whorenounces her father’s wealth to become a popular columnist and writer, a giftedsatirist who casts a haunting shadow on Smallwood’s life and career.

The two meetas children at school and grow to realize that their lives are irreversibly intertwined,bound together by a secret they don’t know they share. Smallwood, always on the make,torn between love of country and fear of failure, is as reluctant to trust the privatetruths of his heart as his rival and savior, Fielding–brilliant, hard-drinking,and unconventionally sexy. Their story ranges from small-town Newfoundland to NewYork City, from the harrowing ice floes of the seal hunt to the lavish drawing roomsof colonial governors, and combines erudition, comedy, and unflagging narrative brioin a manner reminiscent of John Irving and Charles Dickens. A tragicomic elegy forthe “colony of unrequited dreams” that is Newfoundland, Wayne Johnston’s masterfultribute to a people and a place establishes him as a novelist who is as profoundashe is funny, with an impeccable sense of the intersection where private livesand history collide.