Broken Promise this year’s pick for One Book, One Community
WATERLOO — The story of an out-of-work reporter in the floundering town of Promise Falls is this year’s pick for One Book, One Community.
“Broken Promise,” written by former Toronto Star columnist Linwood Barclay is the 17th selection in Waterloo Region’s One Book, One Community, announced in Waterloo on Thursday.
The annual campaign encourages people in Waterloo Region to read the same book, discuss it and attend an author event.
Barclay was born in the United States and moved to Canada with his family before he turned four.
Barclay is an internationally bestselling author of 17 novels for adults, two novels for children as well as screenplays.
His 2011 thriller “The Accident” has been turned into the six-part television series “L’Accident” in France, and he adapted his novel “Never Saw It Coming” for the movie of the same name.
Several of his other books either have been or are in development for television and film.
Barclay helped run a cottage resort and trailer part after his father died when he was 16, before getting his first newspaper job at the Peterborough Examiner.
In 1981, he joined the Toronto Star and held various positions before becoming the paper’s humour columnist in 1993.
He was one of the paper’s most popular columnists, leaving in 2008 to work exclusively on books.
“Broken Promise” is the first novel in the Promise Falls trilogy.
The setting of the book, Promise Falls, is a broken town with no jobs and no prospects, and no newspaper since the Standard went under. That put reporter David Harwood out of a job, but not without things for him to look into after there’s a murder and strange and possibly connected occurrences.
Barclay will be coming to the region on Sept. 25, 26 and 27.