Gelignite Jack

Paul Davies is the author of Grace: A Story, Oblique Litanies, The Wreck of the Apollo, Dropping the Chase: The Enigmas of the Goddess, and Pig Iron, a novel. A departure from the exotic locations and adventure of his earlier writing, Paul Davies’ Gelignite Jack is three stories concerned with the articles, belief, and passage of youth, midlife, and old age. Spiced with Davies’ flair for magic realism, the stories—about a young person getting into theatre, a researcher in the High Arctic, and an old woman having to leave her home—are interwoven as a suite. “The term Renaissance Man is often applied to those who dabble in just two or three different fields. But what else can you call someone who’s formally studied music, higher mathematics, and graphic design—and worked as a typesetter, technical writer, music marketeer, oil and gas industry consultant, antiquarian bookseller, cartoonist, and even computer programmer: Meet Paul Davies” – Gordon Graham, Quill & Quire

What the critics say: “Grace: A Story by Paul Davies is an engaging, interesting, and implausible combination of historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, with didactic elements from comparative mythology and elsewhere …. a real and particular mind and talent are at work in this book…” – Gerald Owen, Books in Canada“Grace packs an existential punch and enriches readers with a technical knockout … exquisitely well-crafted, illuminated with wit, compassion, and warmth…. Hallelujah!” – Judith Fitzgerald

“Davies displays a remarkable refusal to be constrained by assumptions about the plausible and the acceptable. They [Grace and Dropping the Chase] possess a haunting quality I suspect will be with me for a long time….” – W.J. Keith