Spit Delaney's Island

Jack Hodgins’ first book, published originally in 1976, is once again in print — in a new edition. Winner of the Eaton’s Book Prize and nominated for the Governor General’s Award, Spit Delaney’s Island, a collection of short stories, put Vancouver Island on the map as a Canadian literary locale and set Hodgins off on his literary career. 

Often compared to Faulkner’s fiction of the deep South, Hodgins’ stories develop through people who seem to live at the edge of the world, always in danger of falling off that edge. There is Spit himself, the keeper of a steam locomotive that has been exiled to Ottawa for display; there are loggers, country wives, bookstore owners, and people who “live up the mountain” in isolated communes. 

Hodgins’ prose brings Vancouver Island to life in its touch, its taste and the sound of its dialects — a determinedly real world. At the same time, he imbues his people with a sense that there is something more that they cannot see but which they sense and strive towards — a mystery or even magic that they can almost touch but which remains forever elusive. 

Click here to read an excerpt from the short story "Separating."