A National Post Most Anticipated Book of 2011...
“The Blue Light Project will haunt readers for decades to come...”
Laura Moss, editor Canadian Literature
“Timothy Taylor is without a doubt one of Canada's finest writers.”
Steven Galloway, author of Cellist of Sarajevo
“Unforgettable. An exhilarating, at-times alarming read.”
Ayssa York, author of Effigy
In a very near future that is both familiar and troubling, three lives intersect in a time of crisis.
A controversial talent show involving children is midway through taping when a man storms the television studio and takes over a hundred hostages. He’s armed with an explosive device, but expresses no motive and makes just one demand: an interview with journalist Thom Pegg.
It's a strange request, everyone agress. A disgraced former investigative journalist, caught fabricating sources, Pegg is down on his luck and working for a lowly tabloid. Reluctant, but pressured by federal authorities, Pegg agrees to meet the hostage taker. So it is that Pegg learns why he was chosen and the horrifying truth of what the hostage taker is trying to achieve.
Crowds of people congregate near the studio, anxiously waiting along with the outside world. In the confusing perfect storm of news and rumor, two people meet and forge an immediate connection. Eve is a former Olympic gold medalist and much loved local daughter, who jogs the streets at night, running from her own past glories. Rabbit is a secretive street artist working to complete a massive street art project, which involves installatioins on the rooftops of hundreds of buildings throughout the city.
It's a frightening time. Yet rising to its heart-stopping climax, The Blue Light Project surprises the city, and the reader, with the power of beauty and the unexpected sources of faith and light that may be found in even our darkest hours.
-- Knopf (Canada) and Soft Skull (US)
And here's the US cover, published by Soft Skull:
