Monday, August 2

7:30 PM, Upstairs at the Bookstore

Ian Brown, author of “The Boy in Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son”

2010 Winner of three of the biggest prizes in Canadian literature:

  * The Charles Taylor Award for Literary Nonfiction

  * British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

  * The Trillium Book Award

Please join Pages as renowned author and journalist Ian Brown talks about his relationship with his severely handicapped son, Walker. Born with an extremely rare combination of physical and mental disabilities, Walker needed 24/7 care from his parents. Brown’s reflections were first published as a series in “The Globe and Mail,” and included a public correspondence with Jean Vanier, the founder of the world-famous L’Arche communities for handicapped persons. 

Brown’s reflections are reflective, and often deeply personal, as he searches for the meaning of fatherhood. Neither self-glorifying nor martyr-like, Brown describes caring for his child in terms any parent can understand, as Walker’s needs are both more basic and more extensive than other children‘s.

Perhaps Brown’s thoughts are best summed up when he writes: “I was already as close as I could be to him: there was no space between my son and me, no gap or air, no expectation or disappointment, no failure or success: only what he was, a swooned boy, my silent sometimes laughing companion and my son. I knew I loved him, and I knew he knew it. I held that sweetness in my arms, and waited for whatever was going to happen next. We did that together.”