Cities of Refuge
In Cities of Refuge, Michael Helm’s keenly anticipated new novel, a single act of violence resonates through several lives, connecting closeby fears to distant political terrors. At the story’s centre is the complex, intensely charged relationship between a 28-year-old woman and the father who abandoned her when she was young.
One summer night on a side street in downtown Toronto, Kim Lystrander is attacked by a stranger. Thrown deep into turmoil, in the weeks and months that follow, she confronts her fear by returning to the night, in writing, searching for harbingers of the incident, and clues to the identity of her assailant. The attack also torments Kim's father, Harold, an historian of Latin America. As he investigates the crime on his…
MICHAEL HELM is the bestselling author of After James, a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and NOW magazine; Cities of Refuge, a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, longlisted for the Giller Prize, and named a Globe and Mail Book of the Year and a NOW magazine Top Ten of 2010; In the Place of Last Things, a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book; and The Projectionist, a finalist for the Giller Prize and the Trillium Book Award. His writings on fiction, poetry, and photography have appeared in North American newspapers and magazines,…
After James
Michael Helm
Cities of Refuge
Michael Helm
The Projectionist
Michael Helm