Amphibian

Shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada and Caribbean region); Shortlisted for the 2011 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award; A Globe and Mail Top Five First Fiction Title of 2009; A National Post Best Books of 2009 selection. Released by btb Verlag Random House in German translation, March 2012. Forthcoming in French, Italian and Spanish translations. Phineas William Walsh has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural world. He knows that if you wet a dog’s food with your saliva and he refuses to eat it, then he’s top dog, and he knows that dolphins can sleep half a brain at a time. Far from being just idle information, though, Phin draws parallels between the humans in his life and other animals and uses his vast knowledge to try to adjust to and make sense of the confusion in his world – like his parents’ divorce and being bullied at school. But when an event unfolds in his fourth grade classroom that offends both his logic and sensibilities, Phin has had enough and he and his best friend, Bird, are spurred to action. In a voice that has been compared to Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, Phin reflects on the complex and troubled relationship between humans, animals and the environment all the while struggling to maintain his innocence. Is there really any evidence that the human animal is more good than bad, more compassionate than cruel? Is there any reason to hope for a kinder world?