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Crow

Amy Spurway
Contents ( 12)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. 1 THE DIRT
  3. 2 THE DUST
  4. 3 THE WEIGHT OF THE EARTH
  5. 4 IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN PARTY
  6. 5 YOU’LL WISH YOUR CAKE, DOUGH, BABY
  7. 6 BLOOD AND WATER
  8. 7 IN LIVING AND DYING COLOUR
  9. 8 DOWN AROUND THE ROOTS
  10. 9 LOOK AT THAT ONE, MAKING A SCENE
  11. EPILOGUE
  12. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Cover: A black crow on a yellow background flies away from the viewer. It holds a pair of scissors with a cross hanging from them in its talons,. The text reads “Crow by Amy Spurway. Ippy Award for Be

“Tender, raw, and compassionate, Crow tackles the life-changing events thrown at her and muscles them down to her control, leaving her readers breathless in the face of her honesty and hard-earned truths.” — Donna Morrissey

“Amy Spurway comes out swinging with this raw, unflinching, and emotionally urgent debut novel. Be forewarned, Crow is as empowering and comic as it is unsettling and disarming. I love it.” — Joel Thomas Hynes

“I think Crow is great. It depicts a side of Cape Breton populated by characters that are flawed and achingly real. It's poignant and funny.” — Lesley Crewe

“Amy Spurway catches perfectly the enigma that is Cape Breton Island. Her cast of divine lunatics, pogey-scammers, gossips, and big-hearted rebels, revealed through Spurway’s lively and lucid prose, proves that Cape Breton is still the thought-control centre of Canada.” — Wayne Grady

CROW

a novel

AMY SPURWAY

Goose Lane Editions logo. A white goose with black shading on a black background with the text Goose Lane.

Copyright © 2019 by Amy Spurway.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). To contact Access Copyright, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777.

Edited by Bethany Gibson.

Cover and page design by Julie Scriver.

Cover illustration by Julie Scriver, based on a work by Potapov Alexander, Shutterstock.

Printed in Canada.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Spurway, Amy, 1976-, author

Crow / Amy Spurway.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77310-023-4 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77310-024-1 (Kindle).--

ISBN 978-1-77310-025-8 (EPUB)

I. Title.

PS8637.P88C76 2019 C813’.6 C2018-904590-6

C2018-904591-4

Goose Lane Editions acknowledges the generous financial support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of New Brunswick.

Goose Lane Editions

500 Beaverbrook Court, Suite 330

Fredericton, New Brunswick

CANADA E3B 5X4

www.gooselane.com

To the people who are my roots and wings.

A.S.

CONTENTS

  1. 1 The Dirt
  2. 2 The Dust
  3. 3 The Weight of the Earth
  4. 4 If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen Party
  5. 5 You’ll Wish Your Cake, Dough, Baby
  6. 6 Blood and Water
  7. 7 In Living and Dying Colour
  8. 8 Down Around the Roots
  9. 9 Look at That One, Making a Scene
  10. Epilogue
  11. Acknowledgements

1 THE DIRT

I come from a long line of lunatics and criminals. Crazies on one side of the family tree, crooks on the other, although the odd crazy has a touch of crook, and vice versa. I am the weary, bitter fruit — or perhaps the last nut — of this rotten old hybrid, with its twisted roots sunk deep in dysfunctional soil. Some even call it cursed, this family tree of mine. But if you ask me, that’s all a pile of superstitious bullshit. Like I said, we’re just a bunch of lunatics and criminals.