Simcoe Reads. Seven Books. Seven Libraries. One Winner.

Celebrity Champion. Doesn’t that just sound ever so fancy? In truth, it’s an incredible honor, but that comes with a considerable amount of responsibility. Because I wasn’t championing one of my books, but rather, one I selected, with the help of New Tecumseth Public Library’s Kimberly Burgess, from a very long list of possible candidates. The criteria? The book had to be a relatively recent release by a Canadian author, and it had to be relevant.

Since I’m the Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, and I love a good mystery, the winner of the 2020 Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Novel, Greenwood by Michael Christie, seemed like a perfect fit. I hadn’t read it, but I enjoyed the preview, and the reviews were terrific.

Book selected, the next step was to actually read it. At 130,000 words, with an underlying theme of climate change amidst the story of five generations of Greenwoods (the story is set in 1908, 1934, 1974, 2008 and 2038), it’s far from a beach read. Even so, I found myself turning the pages late into the night. Later, I listened to the audiobook (spectacular narration) and caught things I’d missed on reading the paperback version.

Next up was preparing for an interview with the author (via Zoom) and a book club chat. Both were held in August and were a huge success. That left the final hurdle: the taping of the television debate on Sept. 28th for airing on Rogers TV Oct. 3 and 10 (and online). I’ll admit that debating isn’t a strong suit of mine and most of the questions were unknown to us until they were asked. Further, even the questions we did know in advance (Why did you love the book? Why should everyone read the book?) required memorizing (also not a strong suit of mine). As for the answers: 60 seconds a question. I practiced in front of my dog, Gibbs. Obsessed over what I did know and tried to guess on what I didn’t.

And just when I thought I might have things under control, there was another caveat: Don’t wear black. As “Author Judy,” my entire wardrobe is black with some black-and-name a color “flouncy” tops (like the one in the photo on the Simcoe Reads card). Panicked, I went to the one nice clothing store in my small town and bought a turquoise tunic top. It’s pretty but in hindsight, far too casual. I would definitely have been better wearing something from my “Author Judy” collection. Lesson learned.

As for the TV taping, I thought I was prepared but on “game day” I was far from perfect. I wish I’d done better, not just for my own pride, but for New Tecumseth, for Michael Christie, for Simcoe Reads. That said, it’s in the past and there are no do overs. So now, I’m at the last part of this particular journey, which is to spread the word.

Every one of the seven books selected deserves to be read. But if you can only read one, I urge you to read Greenwood.

*****

SIMCOE READS DEBATE AND VOTING

About Greenwood: They come for the trees. It’s 2038 and Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich-eco-tourists in one of the world’s last remaining forests. It’s 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, sprawled on his back after a workplace fall and facing the possibility of his own death. It’s 1974 and Willow Greenwood is just out of jail for one of her environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father’s once vast and rapacious timber empire. It’s 1934 and Everett Greenwood is a Depression-era drifter who saves an abandoned infant, only to find himself tangled up in the web of a crime, secrets, and betrayal that will cling to his family for decades. And throughout, there are trees: a steady, silent pulse thrumming beneath Christie’s effortless sentences, working as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival.

Transporting, beautifully written, and brilliantly structured like the nested growth rings of a tree, Greenwood reveals the knot of lies, omissions, and half-truths that exists at the root of every family’s origin story. It is a magnificent novel of greed, sacrifice, love, and the ties that bind–and the hopeful, impossible task of growing toward the light.