The We're Still Here
Book Club
About the Book
Volume One: Elbows Up!
What is wrong with the world when the disappearance of a single red baseball cap with an American political slogan on it—yes, one of those hats—can threaten the very existence of Canada?
Yet isn’t there something absurdly fitting about the fact that, at the centre of this international crisis, stands a group of aging friends who meet once a month to discuss novels, drink too much wine, and (not always gently) dissect one another’s lives?
Having met for more than twenty years, they call themselves The We’re Still Here Book Club—a name perhaps once jokingly defiant but now an all-too-real challenge to the US president himself.
This ensemble of spirited friends—outspoken Muriel and practical Eleanor; kind-hearted Shirin and mystical Lumira; data-minded Deborah and convivial Brad; and the oldest of them all, steadfast octogenarian Audrey—find themselves forced to orchestrate not only the survival of their friendship but of Canada too.
Set in the fictitious and picturesque Canadian-US border town of Brockton, Ontario, this unexpected tale is part sharp-edged satire and part tender portrait of aging, friendship, and patriotism. The We’re Still Here Book Club. Volume One: Elbows Up! celebrates the resilience, and the occasional folly, of people determined to stay standing—elbows up, the Canadian way—no matter what fresh chaos the world serves them.
Jeff Richardson
About the Author
Jeff Richardson holds an MA in English Literature and views the world with a well-honed sense of satire. His grandmother’s tales of the family’s Loyalist ancestors, who left the US after the American Revolution and defended Canada in the War of 1812, inspired his fascination with Canadian identity. The We’re Still Here Book Club. Volume One: Elbows Up!, his debut novel, captures those questions of identity as they confront not only events on the world stage but also in the theatre of small-town life.
When not writing, Jeff studies Spanish, takes long walks around his cherished town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and wrestles with his rambunctious garden. He lives with his husband of forty-three years (and counting).
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