Invisible Prisons
Jack Whalen's Tireless Fight for Justice
WINNER OF THE 2024 BMO WINTERSET AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE 2024 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE • One of The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2024 • One of CBC’s Best Canadian Non-Fiction Books of 2024
Riveting nonfiction from multi-award-winning author Lisa Moore, based on the shocking true story of a teenaged boy who endured abuse and solitary confinement at a reform school in Newfoundland, but survived through grit and redemptive love.
Invisible Prisons is an extraordinary, empathetic collaboration between the magnificent writer Lisa Moore, best-known for her award-winning fiction, and a man named Jack Whalen, who as a child was held for four years at a reform school for boys in St John’s, where he suffered jaw-dropping abuses and…
LISA MOORE is the author of the bestselling novels Alligator, February, and Caught; the story collections Open and Something for Everyone; and a young adult novel, Flannery. Her books have been finalists for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, CBC Canada Reads, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Man Booker Prize, among many other honours and accolades. Lisa lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Invisible Prisons
Lisa Moore Jack Whalen
Penguin Book of Contemporary Canadian Women's Short Stories
Written and edited by Lisa Moore; Foreword by Lisa MooreJACK WHALEN is the son, brother, husband, and father whose story became this book. He divides his time between family homes in Oshawa, Ontario, and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Recently, he can sometimes be found crossing the country in a truck carrying a replica of the cell in which he was once imprisoned, seeking justice for those who endured solitary confinement as children.