"John Jantunen consistently zigs where other narratives would zag, creating a story that is far stranger and disturbing." — Shelf AwarenessA thrilling apocalyptic tale that rushes from the inside of a prison to a world that feels even more dangerous. The End couldn't have come at a better time for Gerald Nichols.Dubbed "Savage Gerry" by the media, Gerald Nichols became a folk hero after he shot the men who'd killed his wife and then fled into the northern wilds with his thirteen-year-old son, Evers. Five years after his capture, he's serving three consecutive life sentences when the power mysteriously goes out at the prison. The guards flee, leaving the inmates to die, but Gerald's given a last-minute reprieve by a jailbreak. Released into a mad world populated by murderous bands of biker gangs preying on scattered settlements of survivors, his only hope of ever reuniting with his son is to do what he swore he never would: become "Savage Gerry" all...

In this blistering new novel from visionary author John Jantunen, three young men with a history of violence are on a collision course set against the idyllic backdrop of northern Ontario's cottage country.Rene Descartes, a recently released ex-con, is living in a ramshackle trailer only a short distance from Hidden Cove, a secluded paradise where the country's rich and famous relax in opulent gated summer retreats. A savage attack against Rene by the son of the fourth richest man in the country spurns a brutal act of revenge that will ignite this paradise into a fiery vision of hell on earth. As the flames threaten to engulf rich and poor alike, only Deacon Riis, a small-town reporter haunted by his own past, suspects it wasn't Rene who set Hidden Cove ablaze but someone with a far more sinister agenda: to write into life the apocalyptic world imagined by the late George Cleary, a local novelist who was convinced that the end of times is now. In this blistering new novel from visionary author John Jantunen, three young men with a history of violence are on a collision course set against the idyllic backdrop of northern Ontario’s cottage country. Rene Descartes, a recently released ex-con, is living in a ramshackle trailer only a short distance from Hidden Cove, a secluded paradise where the country’s rich and famous relax in opulent gated summer retreats. A savage attack against Rene by the son of the fourth richest man in the country spurns a brutal act of revenge that will ignite this paradise into a fiery vision of hell on earth. As the flames threaten to engulf both rich and poor alike, only Deacon Riis, a small-town reporter haunted by his own past, suspects it wasn’t Rene who set Hidden Cove ablaze but someone with a far more sinister agenda: to write into life the apocalyptic world imagined by the late George Cleary, a local novelist who was convinced that end of times is now. Like David Peace in Red Riding, Murakami in IQ84, or Roberto Bolaño in 2666, John Jantunen uses an exploded narrative to create an existential thriller that pushes the boundaries of genre, crafting a novel that is passionately political and electrifyingly readable.

Some debts can never be repaidA high school football star who chooses a tour of duty in Afghanistan over a potentially lucrative career in the pros. A woman whose career as a nine-ball champion was cut short at the Nationals. A motorcycle accident that leaves a boy in a wheelchair. A gun containing a single bullet. Fires destroying homes throughout Regina. An elusive best friend who makes an incredible and awful sacrifice. And Ruby Yee's spicy black bean balls. All of these factors come together when Curtis Mays, football star and local hero, returns home unexpectedly to find his city mourning the death of a little girl — the granddaughter of Saskatchewan's wealthiest man. As he begins to piece together what has happened, and how his actions may have helped cause it, he realizes that you can try to outrun the past, but you can never escape it.