Here the Dark
CBC Books | | Posted: February 5, 2020 2:50 PM | Last Updated: December 4, 2020
David Bergen
From the streets of Danang, Vietnam, where a boy falls in with a young American missionary, to fishermen lost on the islands of Honduras, to the Canadian prairies, where an aging rancher finds himself smitten and a teenage boy's infatuation reveals his naiveté, the short stories in Here the Dark chronicle the geographies of both place and heart. Featuring a novella about a young woman torn between faith and doubt in a cloistered Mennonite community, David Bergen's latest deftly renders complex moral ambiguities and asks what it means to be lost—and how, through grace, we can be found. (From Biblioasis)
Here the Dark was on the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist.
The book features the story How Can n Men Share a Bottle of Vodka?, which won the 1999 CBC Short Story Prize.
David Bergen is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. In 2005, his novel The Time in Between won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His other books include The Matter with Morris, and Stranger in 2016. His novel The Age of Hope was defended by Ron MacLean on Canada Reads in 2013.
Giller Prize jury citation: "A dying woman asks an aging rancher to become her last lover. A fishing boat sputters to a halt off the coast of Honduras, compelling its owner to decide the fate of his repellent client. A young woman in a puritanical religious community glimpses the coloured world outside, and must choose whether to close her eyes, or to run. Sexual loneliness and moral confusion pull at the delicately wrought characters in David Bergen's latest work, a story collection of masterly skill and tension. His third appearance on the Giller shortlist – including the 2005 winner, The Time in Between – affirms Bergen among Canada's most powerful writers. His pages light up; all around falls into darkness."
- David Bergen on Mennonite food and literary tattoos
- 6 lessons David Bergen has learned from spending 25 years as a writer
- 47 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2020
- David Bergen takes readers on a mother's thrilling quest
- Read an excerpt from Here the Dark
- The best Canadian fiction of 2020
- Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist David Bergen reflects on his writing career