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Darwin's Moving

by (author) Taylor Lambert

Publisher
NeWest Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2017
Subjects
Business, Transportation, Criminals & Outlaws
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781988732046
    Publish Date
    Sep 2017
    List Price
    $11.99

Library Ordering Options

Description

In a city known for wealth and prosperity, the divide between haves and have-nots is rarely clearer than on moving day, when those two worlds come together in intimate fashion. Violent ex-cons and drug addicts are invited into spacious homes, entrusted with the care and transport of the possessions of the upper classes - a unique bridging of two normally segregated worlds.

Darwin's Moving is an intriguing and affecting exploration of class divides by a journalist and former mover. Taylor Lambert takes us behind the scenes of a familiar industry that is almost completely undocumented in Canadian literature to reveal the cycles of poverty and addiction that ensnare its workers. This is the Other Calgary, a world populated by transient men and women struggling to survive in a boomtown's shadow.

About the author

 

Taylor Lambert was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and eventually settled in Calgary, Alberta. He is a journalist who has published three previous books, including Leaving Moose Jaw and the Calgary bestseller Rising: Stories of the 2013 Alberta Flood. To pay for tuition and later to offset his freelance writing, Taylor worked moving furniture, which led to the idea to write a book centred on the moving industry: Darwin's Moving. Taylor currently resides in Calgary.

For more information on Taylor Lambert and his books, please visit taylorlambert.ca.

Taylor Lambert's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Best Trade Non-Fiction at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards
  • Nominated, Best Book Design at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Darwin's Moving:
"With humour and unwavering journalism, Taylor Lambert has written an endearing tribute that lifts up the working class men who help us build a home. For once, we're invited into the movers' messy lives, to see their hopes and dreams on the mantle, and the classism in the closet."
~ Omar Mouallem, co-author of Inside the Inferno
"With a clear-eyed Lambert behind the wheel, Darwin's Moving gives you a full tour of the class divide bubbling up through a rapidly suburbanizing city. In compassionate and concise prose, Lambert delves into the battered histories of the men around him, revealing stories full of joy, rage, fear, and abandonment. Open it up and get in the truck."
~ Andrew F. Sullivan, author of All We Want is Everything
"...the collision of rich and poor is made starkly evident."
~ Quill & Quire
"...an illuminating trip to a realm of which we're only dimly aware. Bonus: You'll learn how to pack a van good and tight."
~ Sarah Murdoch, Toronto Star
"Darwin's Moving is about Calgary but it's a larger story, too, about the ways Darwin's Moving is not unique, about class and the often-transient men tasked with moving our homes."
~ Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail
"Lambert has shed light on a corner of the Canadian working world few even think about. The ghost of Orwell approves."
~ Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press
"You'll never look at a moving truck the same way again."
~ Steven Sandor, Avenue Edmonton