Miall, L: Blind Spot

"Some days I wish something truly bad would happen so that I would have something genuine to worry about."

When his parents' car is hit by a train, Luke, a failed actor, returns to his Edmonton hometown to attend their funeral, wrap up their affairs, and prepare their house to be sold off. But while all others around him grieve, Luke remains detached, striking up a relationship with a woman in a neighbouring house... and stumbling across evidence that his mother may have engaged in a longstanding extramarital affair herself.

In Blind Spot, debut novelist Laurence Miall crafts an unforgettable literary antihero, a man disconnected from the pain of those around him, yet blind to his own faults. With his clean, forceful language and his familiarity with the darker corners of the male psyche, Miall emerges as a gripping storyteller in the tradition of Tobias Wolff and Andre Dubus III.

Praise for Blind Spot

"It seems incongruous: an enjoyable book with a protagonist you'd love to punch about the neck and face."

--Another Book Blog

"Writing a novel based in Canada without making it blatantly Canadian is a tough task. The key it seems, as seen in Laurence Miall's Blind Spot, is just to tell a good story that happens to take place in the Great White North."

--Trent Wilkie, Edmonton Examiner

"Blind Spot is the memorable story of a minor failure, made all the more powerful by its honesty and restraint."

--Alex Good, Quill and Quire

"Miall's character development is dead on and the author achieves this with his remarkable skill at dialogue."

--Naomi K. Lewis, Alberta Views

"His story can hold its own in any locale, and his ability to hold one's attention is what will elevate his reputation as one of Edmonton's most sought-after writers, in the company of the likes of Todd Babiak and Lynn Coady."

--Emil Tiedemann, I Heart Edmonton