In 1970, David Homel escaped the American draft by moving to Paris. But a hiking accident in Spain led to a harrowing journey through botched surgeries, opiate addiction, the loneliness of a crippled traveler, and the constant pain that would define his life for years to come. Today, planning to stay in the game as long as possible, he has a few ideas about how to do just that. By confronting body image issues, performance anxiety, and the challenges of desire, Homel draws an affecting portrait of the battle between Eros and Melancholy. Which one will prevail in this story we call our lives? (From Linda Leith Publishing)

David Homel is a writer, teacher, filmmaker and translator living in Montreal. He has written eight novels, including Electrical Storms, The Speaking Cure and The Teardown. He has won two Governor General's Literary Awards for translation, in 1995 for Why Must a Black Writer Write About Sex? and in 2001 for his co-translation of Fairy Ring by Martine Desjardins. Lunging into the Underbrush is his first work of nonfiction.