From the bestselling author of Firewater comes a moving tribute to an older brother that traverses the thresholds of memoir, fiction, and fantasy and reimagines what could have been.

When Harold Johnson returns to his childhood home in a northern Indigenous community for his brother Clifford's funeral, the first thing his eyes fall on is a chair. It stands on three legs, the fourth broken off and missing. So begins a journey through the past, a retrieval of recollections of his silent, powerful Swedish father; his formidable Cree mother; and his brother Clifford, a precocious young boy who is drawn to the mysterious workings of the universe. As the night unfolds, memories of Clifford surface in Harold's mind's eye. Memory, fiction, and fantasy collide, and Clifford comes to life as the scientist he was meant to be, culminating in his discovery of the Grand Unified Theory.

Exquisitely crafted, funny, visionary, and wholly moving, Clifford is an extraordinary work that embraces myriad forms of storytelling. To read it is to be immersed in a home, a family, a community, the wider world, the entire cosmos.

REVIEW COPIES:

• Publishers Weekly
• Booklist
• Kirkus Reviews

REVIEW COPIES:

• Publishers Weekly
• School Library Journal
• Booklist
• Kirkus Reviews
• Horn Book

About the Author
HAROLD R. JOHNSON (1957-2022) was the author of five works of fiction and five works of nonfiction, including Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours), which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Born and raised in northern Saskatchewan to a Swedish father and a Cree mother, Johnson served in the Canadian Navy and worked as a miner, logger, mechanic, trapper, fisherman, tree planter, and heavy-equipment operator. He was a graduate of Harvard Law School and managed a private practice for several years before becoming a Crown prosecutor, until he retired from the practice of law and wrote full time. Johnson was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.

Reviews
The story's meditations on loss, family, and fateful actions prove absorbing from the opening page. * Toronto Star *
A brilliant mix of realism and fantasy. * London Free Press *


Awards
Winner of Saskatchewan Book Awards: University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award 2018. Short-listed for Saskatchewan Book Awards: Rasmussen, Rasmussen & Charowsky Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award 2018.



Book Information
ISBN 9781487004101
Author Harold R. Johnson
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada
Publisher House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada
Weight(grams) 299g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 133mm * 7mm