What It Takes to Be Human

What It Takes to Be Human, the haunting new novel by Orange Prizeshortlisted author Marilyn Bowering, considers the life of Sandy Grey, an idealistic young air cadet who wants nothing more than to enlist in the Second World War. Sandys father, a fundamentalist preacher, refuses to grant his sons request, fearing that the world is living its very last days. When Sandys attempts to oppose his father turn violent, the novel takes a dramatic shift in setting into the fragmented world of an asylum for the criminally insane. Bowering pushes her characters to the very fringe of civilization, love and sanity during the darkening days of a distant conflict to expose the acute parallels between their lives and the lives of those being torn apart by war.One of Canadas most eloquent storytellers has given us a compelling and exquisitely crafted tale about hope, love and creativity.Susan SwanMarilyn Bowering has written an astonishing novel, full of hope and couragea brilliant antidote to cynicism and despair.Isabel HugganMarilyn Bowering is one of our whistleblowers. Her new book tells us What It Means to Be Humansomething we seem on the brink of forgetting. Classic in form, this whiteknuckle book leads us through a contemporary underworld before bringing us up, once again, to the light. Required reading!P.K. Page