Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #279183 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Synopsis
As he slips beneath the waves of Toronto's harbour, Professor David Hollis follows in death the man he pursued in the last months of his life, English apothecary J. G. Hallam. One hundred and fifty years earlier, Hallam had been sent by his father to open a shop in the New World, but when that business failed, he became a reluctant partner in a photography firm. In 1856, the company was offered the opportunity to work for the municipal government, and the bleak and ungainly young city took shape before Hallam's lens. But after presenting the photographs in England, Hallam's ship sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario and the strongbox holding the photographs was lost. The shoreline of the harbour has shifted dramatically over a century and a half, and David Hollis, driven in his pursuit of this important historical record, speculates that the sunken ship containing the photographs is in the landfill where the city's new Union Arena is to be built. With almost no one on his side but his daughter's fiance, John Lewis, Hallam presents his findings, which are met with howls of derision from his colleagues.

Three months later, he's dead, and Lewis joins the grieving widow, Marianne, in a furtive, unsettling quest to vindicate her husband. Installed in a hotel overlooking the excavation site where the arena is to stand, they await the moment when a piece of the past reappears that might alleviate the anguish of these civic and private vanishings. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully told, Michael Redhill's haunting new book moves seamlessly between Toronto's past and present, depicting the way time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. "Consolation" evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of a beloved truly means.

From the Publisher
A remarkable exploration of the power of place, home and memory, by the acclaimed author of Martin Sloane.

From the Inside Flap
As he slips beneath the waves of Toronto's harbour, Professor David Hollis follows in death the man he pursued in the last months of his life, English apothecary J.G. Hallam.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, Hallam had been sent by his father to open a shop in the New World, but when that business failed, he became a reluctant partner in a photography firm. In 1856, the company was offered the opportunity to work for the municipal government, and the bleak and ungainly young city took shape before Hallam's lens. But after presenting the photographs in England, Hallam's ship sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario and the strongbox holding the photographs was lost.

The shoreline of the harbour has shifted dramatically over a century and a half, and David Hollis, driven in his pursuit of this important historical record, speculates that the sunken ship containing the photographs is in the landfill where the city's new Union Arena is to be built. With almost no one on his side but his daughter's fiancé, John Lewis, Hallam presents his findings, which are met with howls of derision from his colleagues. Three months later, he's dead, and Lewis joins the grieving widow, Marianne, in a furtive, unsettling quest to vindicate her husband. Installed in a hotel overlooking the excavation site where the arena is to stand, they await the moment when a piece of the past reappears that might alleviate the anguish of these civic and private vanishings.

Exquisitely crafted and masterfully told, Michael Redhill's haunting new book moves seamlessly between Toronto's past and present, depicting the way time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. Consolation evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of a beloved truly means.

Customer Reviews

Long not short!
I can understand why this book was longlisted for the booker prize but also why it wasn't short listed. The book is split into two narratives - the present(ish) day and the 1800s and tells two stories which become increasingly parallel. I found some of the narrative difficult to engage in and conversations are written, I found at times almost like a script. This made it difficult for the reader to be sure that you were getting the meaning that the writer intended. Whilst I am glad to have read this I am not sure I would recommend it to a friend.

A beautiful read
While not necessarily agreeing with all that Mister Hobgoblin says, in my view he is much nearer the mark than David Cairns, who must have been going through a very grumpy patch when he read this book.

dull
I never write reviews but in this case I felt I needed to warn fellow readers that this is the most boring book I have read in a long time (and I read a lot). The characters are dull and unreal and unlikeable. The plot is one great bore. I usually love novels with a historical view but this one didn't do it for me at all.