Please join Brandon University and Michael Decter for the Brandon book launch of Shadow Life.

It’s the debut novel from Decter, a former Chancellor of Brandon University. Shadow Life is described as a taut, searching story of guilt, family secrets, and new love, perfect for fans of John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom series, Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy and Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides.

Shadow Life was recently named one of the best Canadian fiction books of 2022.

The first book in a planned trilogy, Shadow Life introduces readers to Matthew Rice – a successful sixty-year-old Toronto politico who finds himself suddenly unmoored after serving jury duty on a devastating child murder case. Retreating to his cottage on an isolated island in Georgian Bay after being placed on medical leave, Matthew spends his evenings nursing scotch and old memories as he tries to evade the encroaching nightmares borne of the trial.

It is not long before Matthew’s trips down memory lane lead to Pandora’s box in the form of a missing birth certificate, and the thread of his life begins to unravel more spectacularly with the discovery of a long-buried family secret.

As Matthew’s desire to uncover the identity of his real birth mother sparks an investigation that will take him from Sydney to Boston to Dublin and back to the rocky shores of Quarry Island, readers are drawn into Shadow Life’s atmospheric and delicate web where memory and myth will ultimately collide to reveal self-discovery and new love.

“Each of us is far more vulnerable, far more easily unravelled than we believe,” Decter said about his inspiration to write Shadow Life. “Our life journey to knowledge is also a journey of discovery of from where we have truly come.”

A Harvard University graduate, Decter was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2017 and the Order of Canada in 2004. He has written three non-fiction books on healthcare, three on investment, a memoir, and Tales from the Back Room, a collection of political stories. Decter has also written about health and healthcare in the Literary Review of Canada, contributed OpEd pieces to the Toronto Star and The Globe & Mail, and for several years he wrote a column for Osprey Media.

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Decter now lives in Toronto and is a dual citizen of Canada and Ireland. Decter served as BU Chancellor from 2013–2021.

Light refreshments will be served at this Brandon book launch.