St. John’s archivist Michael Lowe’s life is turned on its head when a Dutch colleague, Anton Aalders, arrives on his doorstep in 1995. Anton is searching for a father he never met, ostensibly a Newfoundland soldier part of the Allied force that liberated the Netherlands at the end of World War II. Anton’s visit stretches from a few days to a few weeks, keen as he is to learn as much as he can about Newfoundland, its history, and its people. Rabble rouser and ardent Newfoundland nationalist Miles Harnett, Michael’s friend, is obsessed with his own search for the lost “fatherland” of Newfoundland, which relinquished its political independence in 1934. Miles is only too eager to teach Anton—and Michael—the shameful, forgotten history (as he sees it) of the lost country of Newfoundland. The Strangers’ Gallery is a finely crafted, at times humorous novel about the search for identity—both political and personal.

Paul Bowdring is the author of three previous novels, including the critically acclaimed The Night Season and, most recently, The Strangers’ Gallery, which won the 2013 BMO Winterset Award, the 2014 Writers’Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage and History Fiction Award, and was nominated for the 2014 ReLit Award and the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He was shortlisted for the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council BMO Artist of the Year award for 2014. He lives in St. John’s.

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