Welcome to beautiful Bareneed. For as long as anyone can remember, this village has been like many other secluded seaport communities in Newfoundland. Other than a few minor problems caused by the town’s steadily declining fishing industry, little has disturbed Bareneed’s idyllic existence.
Hoping to return to his childhood hometown’s tranquility, Joseph Blackwood and Robin, his eight-year-old daughter, visit Bareneed. Living in a historic house overlooking the once-bountiful ocean, father and daughter will try to heal some of the emotional wounds they have each suffered during the recent separation of Joseph and his estranged wife Kim. However, something terribly strange is happening in Bareneed. Many of the townspeople are suddenly having mysterious and deadly respiratory problems; doctors can find no medical explanation for what threatens to become an apparently unpreventable epidemic. Then, to make matters worse, the nearby ocean, no longer yielding its formerly plentiful supply of cod, is instead quite inexplicably disgorging dozens of bodies dressed in all sorts of curious clothing. Surprisingly, young Robin is the one person who may possess the keys to solving the ever-growing list of Bareneed’s darkly sinister mysteries.
Canadian author Kenneth J. Harvey’s gothic novel is a beautifully haunting parable of love and loss, as well as survival and mortality. Harvey’s readers might be reminded of works from H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King and Gabriel Garc’a-M‡rquez, but Harvey brings uniquely imaginative storytelling skill to this wickedly allegorical tale about the effects of culture and history upon communities and families. On one level, this novel’s powerful thematic significance will linger for a long time. But on another level, it will frighten readers so much that they may never turn out the lights! Tim Davis teaches literature at the University of West Florida.
