Hollow Water

Hollow Water is a follow-up to Sarsfield's popular Running with the Caribou and is told in the same intimate style that made his first book a popular seller. The story "The Devil You Know" is a tale of going to school and how the system and the micro-society among the children reflect the larger world with all its injustices. "Private Joke" is a story of hitchhiking and the way chance meetings under certain circumstances lead to a greater understanding of the people around us and the lonely beauty of the road. "May Month, Hopedale" is a detailed, thoughtful look at a small town in Labrador with its deep history and illusion of modern decay. In "Maugham's Room" a trip to Bangkok, a city both modern and civilized yet filled with squalor and despair, evokes both the memories of school-day youth in Nova Scotia and the ghost of Somerset Maugham.Sarsfield paints his stories in the words of a true traveler who lives exactly where he is at the moment. The tales of his travels--be they fiction or non-fiction--bring the reader slices of life that are both beautiful and recognizable. Hollow Water is a collection from a deep, insightful writer.