Nightfall

Wright, whose novel Clara Callan won both the Giller Prize and a Governor General's Award in 2001, here tells a moving story of second chances, revisiting two characters, James Hillyer and Odette Huard, from his 2007 novel October. In this book, James, a retired English professor and widower, falls into despair after the death of his beloved daughter. Searching for a reason to carry on, he recalls a summer in 1944 spent in Gasp%C3%A9, Quebec, when he was a shy 14-year-old smitten by 15-year-old Odette, a poor French Canadian girl working as a chambermaid in a local hotel. Their friendship never became a romance; James simply helped Odette at that fateful juncture in her life. Sixty years later, he wonders what became of her and places ads in Montreal newspapers to find her. Soon he learns that she lives in Quebec City, where she lives with and cares for her mentally disabled sister, Celeste. He arranges to meet Odette, but their reunion is interrupted by Raoul, Odette's estranged, violent boyfriend, who is in the early stages of dementia. The narration shifts among James, Odette, and Raoul as their pasts and present collide. This is a haunting, beautiful story of what might have been and what still can be, even in the face of tragedy. Agent: Dean Cooke, Cooke Agency. (May)