In the spirit of Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor or Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, Andy Brown's first novel follows a sibling relationship told through vignettes, each story centered around the removal of a mole. From this premise, Brown's novel expands the associations of moles from skin disease, to the burrowing animal, to secret societies and espionage, to tell the story of familial dysfunction, culture-jamming, eco-terrorism, and regret in the lives of young adults in the 1990s. Moving from the urban decay of Montreal to the beaches of Vancouver and back, and reflecting on diverse cultural and historical phenomena - BMX racing, The Fantastic Four, bush parties, lifeguard obsessions, and the Montreal Ice Storm - The Mole Chronicles is an innovative debut novel.
Andy Brown is the co-editor of You & Your Bright Ideas: New Montreal Writing (with rob mclennan, Véhicule Press) and Running with Scissors (Cumulus Press), the latter co-edited with Meg Sircom.
He is the author of the short story collection I can see you being invisible (D.C. Books, 2003) and the novel The Mole Chronicles (Insomniac Press, 2006), as well as founder of the acclaimed small publishing house Conundrum Press.