With a couple of exceptions (cough, cough), the word thus far on Woefield has been great. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to write about the book. And a huge thanks to everyone who has bought a copy. Please remember that you are all invited to the book launch on April 1 at the Urban Beet.
P.S. None of these people have received chicken paraphernalia. Yet.
“It’s so difficult to have a (theoretically) morally superior protagonist doing good works, and have them be in any way likable. Nanaimo’s Susan Juby achieves this miraculous feat with her latest novel, The Woefield Poultry Collective… The novel is genuinely funny and tremendously charming.”
Sandra Kasturi, National Post
“Alternately narrated by each of the main characters’ unique voices in chronologically overlapping chapters, HOME TO WOEFIELD unfolds gradually as we learn their histories, witness their transformation, and hope that Prudence’s vision for the future will somehow miraculously come to pass. Sure, it seems like a long shot, but so does friendship among these disparate, damaged souls. And as we read Earl’s tragic story of escaped fame, Seth’s bleary rants and ramblings, and Sara’s heartbreakingly earnest desires for the future, we eagerly don Prudence’s rose-colored glasses and hope for the best for all of them.
Quirky, heartwarming and extremely funny, HOME TO WOEFIELD should help Susan Juby find the wider audience she so deserves.”
Norah Piehl, Bookreporter
“A wonderful juxtaposition of parody and playfulness, Home to Woefield is a joyous book about someone living out a fantasy, confronting illusions, and attempting to make a dream come true.”
Debra Leigh Scott, New York Journal of Books
“When Prudence Burns inherits her uncle’s farm, she pictures barn raisings, strawberry socials, and the pastoral idyll. The reality: 30 acres of scrub land. Undaunted, her naive optimism, which alternately astounds and amuses, attracts a rag-tag band of misfits who join her bumbling, madcap efforts to make a go of Woefield Farm. … In her sparklingly witty and charming first novel for adults, the author of the Alice MacLeod YA series delightfully combines satire and a distinctly modern voice with old-fashioned sweetness, and her laugh-out-loud writing is tempered by the characters’ emotional pain and efforts to help one another heal. Woefield Farm may not produce a single crop, yet it’s fertile ground for superb storytelling.”
Booklist
A “sweetly cockamamie tale of the emotional, physical, and spiritual recovery of lost souls sharing a neglected farm, a seriously depressed sheep, a coop of fancy chickens, and a last shred of hope.
… A wounded little girl and an indomitably hopeful big one book-end this lightly funny and touching yarn about an endearing band of social wrecks who are impossible not to love.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“A great, lighthearted way to welcome spring. I recommend it to all gardeners and farmers, at any skill level, to ardent poultry fanciers and to anyone who just wants a good belly laugh.”
Laurie Glenn Norris, Telegraph-Journal
Interview with Nathalie Atkinson at National Post
Interview with Adrian Chamberlain at Times Colonist
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