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Where The Rivers Meet

Strange, even deadly, encounters happen when young Tommy Caffrey is left alone with the Mi’kmaq tomahawk he found. Set in a mythical northern Cape Breton town, Where The Rivers Meet is a coming-of-age story told against the backdrop of religious and racial conflict that occurs when gold is discovered on Indian land.

1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Danny: I wrote a number of articles for magazines while I was living among tribal people in the Philippines. One was about a wild boar hunt. Another was about the organizing of a logging blockade to stop deforestation. It felt good and important to put these experiences into print.

2. What inspired you to write this book?

Danny: Fifteen years ago, when I returned home to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, after many years of being abroad, my earliest memories came flooding back. I just had to write about them.

3. Did you plot out the book before you started or did you just allow it to flow freestyle?

Danny: Completely freestyle. Interesting, because in the end I needed and created a very strong structure based on the passage of time. Twelve chapters: one for each month between August 1961 and July 1962.

4. What was the most challenging part about writing a book?

Danny: The solitary nature of the task is a challenge. What was also difficult was not knowing if it would even be published despite the amount of time, creativity and life experience expended. Only once I knew it would be published did I really buckle down and make everything work together, to perfect the book. That was a tremendous motivation for me.

5. How does it feel now that you have finished the book and finally see it for sale in the bookstores?

Danny: I took a picture of my novel sitting on the shelves at the Coles in the Antigonish Mall. It feels wonderful. It is very gratifying to know that readers will come to know my characters and, through some of them anyway, the real heroes and heroism they represent.

Danny Gillis has written for magazines and newspapers for more than two decades. He is a respected author and editor. Where The Rivers Meet is a special book by a special talent and will firmly establish Gillis as a master storyteller and one of the most important and engaging voices to come out of the region in years.

MESMERIZING

Gillis introduces us to a cast of characters as original as they are familiar, as humorous as they are insightful. With an often mesmerizing frenzy of words and images, Gillis weaves geography and communities, the beauty and cruelty of youth, corporate exploitation and indigenous tragedy, into an unforgettable and extremely entertaining tale.
Frank Macdonald is the award winning author of A Forest for Calum and A Possible Madness, both long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

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