The Secret History of My Hometown

The six stories in Andrew Boden's debut collection comprise a reinvented history of the town of Cranbrook, British Columbia, from its birth in the late nineteenth century to its death and re-birth in 1983, after a Soviet missile strike. Moving by way of hard "what ifs" all the while grounded in the streets and surrounding wilderness of a town in southeastern B.C.

What if when the Sells Floto Circus lost six elephants into the Cranbrook wilderness, a young, lovesick Ernest Hemingway came to hunt the missing pachyderms? What if Leon Trotsky retreated not to Mexico City but to Cranbrook while it was embroiled in labour unrest? What if, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a Chinese family's grocery in Cranbrook depended on the intervention of none other than the legendary Monkey King?

Boden's stories are driven by slyly funny, plainspoken characters who make the unlikely so likely it will sneak up on you. For fans of the fiction of Karen Russell, George Saunders, and Zsuzsi Gartner, The Secret History of My Hometown brings the fantastical to an otherwise unassuming railway stop in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

Author: Andrew Boden
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Free Attic Press
Published: 10/31/2021
Pages: 282
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9781777822309

About the Author
Boden, Andrew: - Andrew Boden's fiction and non-fiction have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines across Canada and the US, including the Journey Prize anthology, and he has been a finalist in the Malahat Review's 2016 and 2018 novella contests. He is co-editor of 'Hidden Lives: Coming Out on Mental Illness, ' an anthology of personal essays. Boden grew up in Cranbrook, BC, and now lives in Burnaby.