Synopses & Reviews
Vancouver is a startlingly beautiful city of dreams and desires. Its mountains, rivers, ocean, and islands are arresting to the eye and exciting to the soul. The long and varied human history of this magical place is irresistibly grand and eventful.
Vancouver -- the city, the land -- has al-ways been a place of appetites, of licenses offered and liberties taken. Since the time the humans crossed the Bering Strait and journeyed down the Pacific Coast seeking a fabled land of plenty, Vancouver, caught between soaring mountains and a vast ocean, has been a destiny for the spirit.
Beginning in the dying era of the last Ice Age, Vancouver unfolds with the story of Tooke, the last survivor of a Siberian people and ancestor to the first nations of Vancouver. Moving through history in a rich, ever-expanding tapestry, Vancouver reveals a fascinating cast of characters. Long before recorded history, a young girl faces the terrifying prospect of marriage into a faraway tribe. Hundreds of years later, a Georgian cartographer aboard a Spanish exploration fleet nearly meets his end at the hands of her descendants. In the passing of the next centuries, a Scottish trapper becomes the reluctant leader of a fur-trading outpost on Vancouver's shores, and a Chinese peasant boy seeks an elusive fortune. The burgeoning colony of Vancouver lures a turn-of-the-century British adventurer and a German noble. In modern times, a superstar singer and film actress meets her destiny in the form of a young native girl struggling to free herself from the city's impoverished downtown eastside.
The characters of Vancouver are all vastly different, yet they all share something -- a powerful attraction to a grand and giving land. Their stories intertwine, touching the extremes of human experience: riches, bravery, betrayal, crime, passion, and forbidden love.
Review
“Entertaining ... never fails to be interesting.” San Francisco Chronicle
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"Amazing [and] fantastic." Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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"Ambitious [and] deeply imagined." Publishers Weekly
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"Reminiscent of James Michener ... Vancouver weaves storytelling and history seamlessly." Library Journal
Synopsis
The arc of history in Vancouver is a dramatic one -- its beauty and tranquility has often been shattered by tribal warfare, floods, and earthquakes. Vancouver follows the human history of this irresistibly grand and eventful city as the coastal tribes are driven out by wave after wave of treasure seekers and idealists. Russian explorers attacked and marooned on Vancouver's shores, Scottish trappers scooping up a fortune in furs, Chinese peasants chasing after gold, and colorful penny-stock promoters are the rich heritage that is Vancouver's past and present.
In Vancouver, Cruise and Griffiths bring their intimate knowledge of this unique city and their storytelling skills to bear in this gripping epic of a land and its people.
Synopsis
Cruise and Griffiths bring their intimate knowledge of this unique city and their storytelling skills to bear in a gripping epic of a land and its people.
About the Author
David Cruise and Alison Griffiths began writing together in 1983 and are the authors of seven bestselling Canadian books, including
Fleecing the Lamb, Lords of the Line, Net Worth, On South Mountain, and
The Great Adventure. David was born and raised in British Columbia and lived with Alison in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island for fifteen years. Today Cruise and Griffiths live on a small farm in southwestern Ontario -- counting the days to their return to the West Coast.
David Cruise and Alison Griffiths began writing together in 1983 and are the authors of seven bestselling Canadian books, including Fleecing the Lamb, Lords of the Line, Net Worth, On South Mountain, and The Great Adventure. David was born and raised in British Columbia and lived with Alison in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island for fifteen years. Today Cruise and Griffiths live on a small farm in southwestern Ontario -- counting the days to their return to the West Coast.