Fate and Freedom in the Novels of David Adams Richards

by Sara MacDonald, Barry Craig

This book explores the understanding of freedom developed in the later novels of celebrated Canadian author, David Adams Richards. Many reviewers highlight two interconnected features in Richards a seemingly rigid determinism of setting and sociodemographics, and a resulting hopelessness. In contrast, Richards describes the quest of human life and the purpose of his novels as a search for freedom. This book explores the account of freedom that is developed through the course of four of Richards’s The Friends of Meager Fortune, Mercy Among the Children, The Lost Highway, and Crimes Against My Brother. Following the Augustinian thread that informs Richards’s writing, we argue that rather than presenting an understanding of human life that is bleak or hopeless, Richards instead reveals an argument wherein one’s happiness and freedom is found in the midst of love.

174 pages, Hardcover

Published May 19, 2017

About the author

Much of my life has been as a gypsy without roots.

I travelled as a child, went to many schools, ending my education in a strict Catholic convent in Malta while my parents lived in Cyprus.

I was set on an acting career and after working as an ASM in The Theatre Royal Windsor I won a place at the London Academy of Music and Drama.

My acting career was brief. I went off to Germany, Norway, Sharjah, then on to Singapore and Malaysia as an army wife.

I kept journals of my time in the Middle East and my first novel, Falls The Shadow, (now out of print) was published by a small independent publisher.

Eventually, tired of an itinerant life, I moved to Cornwall and put down roots. Having secured an agent, my next two novels Listening to Voices and The Sleep of Birds were published by Headline.

Sea Music was published by Harper Collins to critical acclaim, followed by Another Life, The Hour Before Dawn and Come Away With Me.

At the end of 2009 I took the decision to take time off to travel. I visited Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and lived for a year in Karachi, Pakistan. The result is a new book, set in Pakistan.