Nicholas Ruddock

Part comedy, part mystery, The Parabolist is a searingly smart and funny novel about murder, sex, medical school, poetry and vigilante justice on the streets of Toronto in 1975. Told through interlacing narratives, the story funnels towards the eye of an unsolved crime: on a rainy summer night, a woman is raped and very nearly murdered, but for the intervention of two drunken vigilantes who kill her attacker before fleeing the scene. The only clue the police have about their identities: a smear of Crisco shortening found on the victim. This is a satirical, whimsical, dangerous and tender story of earnest youth and their ardent desire for love, acceptance and fulfillment.